11/7/2023 – Indian chess celebrated a double victory in the recent FIDE Grand Swiss events on the Isle of Man. Vidit Gujrathi and Vaishali Rameshbabu claimed outright victories in the open and the women’s sections respectively. The ChessBase India team, led by Sagar Shah, travelled to the island in the Irish Sea and, as usual, produced a plethora of content!

8/18/2023 – The FIDE World Cup is taking place in Baku. We decided to do a short tour of the Azerbaijani capital before the important event commenced. After reading a lot about must-see places in Baku and getting info from the locals, Icherisheher (Old City) seemed to be the perfect place to venture. In a little over three hours, I visited The Palace of Shirvanshahs, the award-winning Miniature Book Museum, Maiden Tower and Nizami Street. Let us have a look at what piqued my interest on a day when I walked 16230 steps — my longest walk of the year! | Photos: Shahid Ahmed

3/28/2023 – 16-year-old Dommaraju Gukesh is one of the brightest talents of India and World Chess. He is now World no.18 with a FIDE Rating of 2730. The current India no.2 graced the ChessBase India Chess Club with his presence on Saturday, 18th March 2023. There was a big challenge in front of him – he was to give a simultaneous exhibition to 21 players, with the top five seeds having an Elo rating of over 2000. The spectacular even simul was held at the Phoenix Marketcity Mall in Mumbai. | Photo: Abhyudaya Ram

3/15/2023 – Sagar Shah has been a chess player, coach, journalist, YouTuber, entrepreneur and more. In his journey through different countries and tournaments, he has collected plenty of valuable experience to share. In his new series ‘From the CEO’s Desk’, he shares his musings and thoughts about various things — sometimes related to chess, and sometimes just life. Today, Sagar takes a closer look at the deep-rooted emotions and fears of a chess player, drawing parallels with his own life.

1/26/2023 – It calls for a celebration: ChessBase India turned seven years old on 18th of January 2023. In the second part of his article, the CEO and co-founder of ChessBase India, IM Sagar Shah, writes about the work done by the ChessBase India team in the last 365 days. There is so much to tell – it is a wonderful success story.

7/26/2022 – The ChessBase India Originals Death Match between Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi is an exhibition match taking place at the Dublin Square in the Phoenix Marketcity, Mumbai. The elite grandmasters face off in blindfold chess, rapid, blitz, bullet and no-castling chess! | The action kicks off at 14.00 CEST (8.00 ET, 17.30 IST)

7/25/2022 – On 26 July 2022, the chess world will be treated to a unique show: the ChessBase India Originals Death Match between Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi. The Death Match will be held at the Dublin Square in the Phoenix Marketcity, Mumbai. What is the format of the match, what is the prize money, who are the hosts and commentators of the show, are there any exhibition matches? Find all the relevant information in the article. A rapid tournament and simuls will also take place.

1/6/2020 – Fourteen of the brightest talents of Indian chess will train with two of the legends in the world of chess: Vladimir Kramnik and Boris Gelfand. The Microsense Kramnik Gelfand chess program runs from January 8th to the 17th, 2020, in Chennai. This is the second training camp, after the successful completion of the first one in August 2019. Joining the original six students are eight more, all hand picked by Kramnik and Gelfand to receive intensive training over the next ten days. Microsense Private Limited is the sponsor of the program, while ChessBase India founders Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal manage the camp.

8/16/2019 – It is a new development that will boost Indian chess beyond measure: Vladimir Kramnik, the 14th World Champion, has started to work with six talented Indian youngsters in a training camp that will be held in Chens-Sur-Leman, France. It is the first of four sessions and is sponsored by the Chennai-based company Microsense Private Limited. ChessBase India has played a pivotal role in bringing all of the elements of the camp together. IM Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal will be accompanying the youngsters.

4/30/2019 – Which is the most popular chess video on the Internet? How many people watched the record-breaking YouTube video? And who is the star of the show? Magnus Carlsen? Garry Kasparov? Neither. It is a 13-year-old boy named Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. Really! A single video of him beating a 2650 GM in blitz chess was watched by close to 21 million viewers — chalking up 82 million watch minutes. And that's not all: other games by Pragg have been watched many millions of times as well.

3/18/2019 – In January our editor emeritus Frederic Friedel took a trip to India, to visit our partners at ChessBase India, to visit two big GM Opens, and to meet some of the incredible young talents the country is currently producing. There was a preteen grandmaster, a number of candidate GMs in their very early teens, and a delightful U12 girl's world champion. Frederic made many new friends, but he also used the opportunity to conduct his famous talent test on them. Here are the results and a biographical video.

2/28/2019 – On Monday we told you about a very tough problem which was given to Vishy Anand by Vladimir Kramnik — and challenged you to solve it. A number of GMs and IMs had not succeeded, when Anand gave the problem to the players of Pune. In the end he discussed the moves that needed to be found, and Sagar Shah filmed it all for us to see. Don't miss Vishy showing you the solution.

2/25/2019 – Here's a very tough problem which was given to Vishy Anand by Vladimir Kramnik — a challenge from one World Champion to another. Anand was in the city of Pune, India for a two-day workshop for players from all over the country. At one stage he showed them a chess problem that his predecessor Vladimir Kramnik had given him. A crowd, including three GMs and seven IMs racked their brains, more or less unsuccessfully. We ask you to do the same.

12/22/2018 – Playing blitz is a lot of fun. But is it useful? This is the question on the minds of many chess players, parents and trainers. The answer is a resounding "Yes!" We have a great instructional video by IM and chess trainer Sagar Shah, who shows how you can make the best use of your blitz games using the normal ChessBase tools. It's a 16-minute tutorial that you shouldn't miss. Follow his instructions and watch the rating points pour in.

8/21/2018 – The state of Kerala in India is in disarray right now. The flooding has reached catastrophic levels, 350 people have died and more than 200,000 are displaced after losing their houses. In such a situation, the third GM of Kerala, 14-year-old Nihal Sarin, has decided to do his bit to support the people affected by the floods. The young boy will feature on the ChessBase India live show on the 22nd of August 2018 at 8 p.m. to raise funds for the flood victims. It's a call to the chess community to help our brethren in distress.

1/18/2018 – January 18th, 2016, is the date when ChessBase India came into existence. It's been two years since ChessBase India has been powering chess in the country. Right from a thriving news page, to bubbling social media, to online prize money tournaments, travel portal, calendar, ChessBase India is trying to provide all the services that help to improve the life of a chess player. In this article Sagar Shah, co-founder of ChessBase India tells the story of how this company came into existence and also we have a contest for you to win premium quality recently launched ChessBase India t-shirts.

1/8/2018 – The seventh round of Eka by IIFLIM International Chess tournament 2017-18 saw a very interesting event: an exciting blindfold simul starring GM Timur Gareyev! The Blindfold King was challenged by 12 young chess players, some of whom gave a very tough fight. Avathanshu Bhat, who was also in the simul, reported on the event. Timur not only played the simul scoring 10½ / 12 (with 3 draws), he also won his classical game against a 2300+ opponent and then came to the commentary studio to explain his win in a 25 minute masterclass! At the end of the day all we can think is, where does the man get all this energy from?! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

11/28/2017 – It is one of the most important tools of chess professionals and amateurs alike: the flagship database of 7.8 high quality games, from 1560 to 2017, extensively classified, with direct access to players, tournaments, openings, middlegame and endgame themes. 71,000 games are annotated by top players. And best of all: the database is constantly updated, for a full year, with around 250,000 new games expected in 2018. How it all works and how you can use the Mega Database is explained in a very instructive video by IM Sagar Shah.

8/26/2017 – The country's first grandmaster was Vishy Anand, back in 1988. The number slowly increased, and in recent years has surged: currently there are 49 GM in India, making it number eight on this count in the world (Russia has 240, the US 94, Germany 91 and Ukraine 89). The million Rupee question now is: who will be India's 50th GM? We give you the candidates for the golden jubilee grandmaster!

4/26/2017 – During the last weeks you were comprehensively briefed on Nihal Sarin, twelve years old and on his way to the GM title. Nihal is playing at the Reykjavik Open, where a compatriot is stunning the crowd. Pragga, as he is known to friends, is making life tense for experienced grandmasters, in fact beating the winner of the recent Dubai Open, GM Gawain Jones, rated 2671. And: a fifteen-year-old girl has joined the ranks of young GM killers: Vaishali, who is Pragga's sister.

3/14/2017 – GM Anish Giri called him the Master Shifu of the Indian team at the Olympiad. There is absolutely no doubt that R.B. Ramesh and his chess Gurukul have transformed the chess scene in India drastically. Ranging from superb performances at the Olympiad, to clean sweeps at the World Youth, to the creation of super talents like R. Praggnanandhaa, R.B.Ramesh has played a huge role. Here is a candid interview with the foremost coach in Indian chess by Niklesh Jain.

1/29/2017 – B. Adhiban has shown absolutely no respect for the current status of opening theory at the Tata Steel Masters 2017. The viability of this approach is seen by his +1 score after twelve rounds against the world's best. In order to give a tribute to this wonderful performance by the Indian grandmaster, ChessBase India will organize an online Chess960 blitz event that will take place at 6 p.m. IST on 29th of January. Some exciting prizes to be won from the comfort of your home!

9/29/2016 – Many foreigners wait for a chance to visit India. Filled with diverse landscapes, historic and cultural background, various cuisines and landmark structures – a trip to India can be a life transforming experience. If you are a chess player, here's some good news for you: you not only get to play in three back to back strong tournaments with a hefty prize fund, but you get to see the country. And if you are an IM or a GM you get some excellent conditions.

9/17/2016 – Three years ago Vladimir Kramnik won the 2013 FIDE World Cup in Tromsø, a 128-player knockout tournament. It was a fine and stunning victory, which involved defeating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (currently the World's number two) in the sixth round. In game two Kramnik could have settled matters with a study-like win he had on the board, but failed to find. Not surprising in short time controls under high pressure. Try to solve the position and let Sagar Shah of ChessBase India teach you a bit about an important endgame.