Banjan

Hoogeveen Chess 06: Sengupta loses to Jan Werle, who leads with 5.0/6

Indian GM Deep Sengupta (2580) lost to Dutch GM Jan Werle (2524) allowing him to walk to the top of the Hoogeveen Chess table with 5.0/6. He is followed by nine players tied at 4.5/6.

Besides Sengupta, Indian GMs Abhijeet Gupta (2629), GM Debashis Das (2501) and GM Vishnu Prasanna (2503) are in the pack following the leader with 4.5/6. Among other Indians, GM G.N. Gopal (2536), GM Ankit Rajpara (2467), IM Arghyadip Das (2467) and GM Neelotpal Das (2465) are all part of a large contingent is at 4.0/6.

Check the Round seven pairings here.

Hoogeveen 05: Sengupta leads strong field with 4.0/5

Indian GM Deep Sengupta (2580) was perched on the top of the table with 4.5/5. He is followed by five players tied at 4.0/5.

Indian GMs Abhijeet Gupta (2629) and Vishnu Prasanna (2503) are in the pack following the leader with 4.0/5. Among other Indians, GM G.N. Gopal (2536), GM Debashis Das (2501), GM Ankit Rajpara (2467) and GM Neelotpal Das (2465) are all part of a large contingent at 3.5/5. IM Arghyadip Das (2467) is at 3.0/5.

Check the Round 6 pairings here.

Monaco Women’s Grand Prix: Hou Yifan achieves a clean victory

Hou Yifan achieved a clean victory in the first leg of the FIDE Grand Prix held at Monaco. She scored 9.0/11, a full two points ahead of the rest of the field.

The current World Champion Mariya Muzychuk finished second with 7.0/11, losing hear head-to-head encounter with Hou Yifan. Indian No. 1, Koneru Humpy, also scored 7.0/11, to finish on the third spot — she managed to beat Hou Yifan in their encounter.

Hou Yifan picked up 160 GP points from the tourney, Mariya Muzychuk made 130 and Koneru Humpy 110 GP points.

Isle of Man: Harikrishna wins the tournament

Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna (2737) scored 7.0/9 to win the Isle of Man PokerStars tournament on tiebreak. French GM Laurent Fressinet (2702) and Armenian GM Gabriel Sargissian (2679) also scored 7.0/9, but finished second and third on tiebreak respectively.

India was represented by six GMs and 2 IMs in the star-studded field. IM Swayams Mishra was the second best Indian after Harikrishna, finishing 16th with 6.0/9.

Check the final standings here.

Isle of Man Chess 04: Seven lead after draw at the top board

The top board game between French GM Laurent Fressinet (2702) and Armenian GM Sergei Movsesian (2658) ended in a draw, allowing five others grandmasters to catch up with the erstwhile leaders in the Isle of Man Chess tourney.

Indian GM Dronavalli Harika (2516) suffered a defeat at the hands of the evergreen Dutch GM Sergei Tiviakov (2612) to remain stranded 2.5/4. Other Indians had positive results to stay in the race.

Check the Round 5 pairings here.

Chess World Cup: Karjakin hangs on to win the tournament

After ten decisive games, displaying phenomenal grit, Russian GM Sergey Karjakin (2762) won the 2015 Chess World Cup. This is Karjakin’s first World Cup victory.

After coming back from the dumps to tie the classical rubber 2.0-2.0, Karjakin won the first of the 15 minutes each rapid game but lost the second. In the 10 minutes each rapid games, Svidler managed to win the first game swiftly, however, ended up losing the second game.

In the deciding 5+3 games, Svidler managed to shoot himself on the foot. In the first game, in a completely winning position, he blundered a full rook. His initiative in the second game was not enough to win, even losing out of desperation.

Both Svidler and Karjakin had qualified to the Candidates by virtue of reaching the Finals of this tournament.

Isle of Man 03: Fressinet and Movsesian lead

French GM Laurent Fressinet (2702) and Armenian GM Sergei Movsesian (2658) lead the PokerStars Isle of Man tournament with a perfect score of 3.0/3.

Second seed GM Pentala Harikrishna (2737) dropped half a point in the third round to move to 2.5/3. GM Deep Sengupta (2580), GM Dronavalli Harika (2516) and GM Sundararajan Kidambi (2497) are also placed at 2.5/3.

Check the Round 4 pairings here.

Poikovsky 04: Bologan and Inarkiev lead

GM Victor Bologan (2607) and GM Ernesto Inarkiev (2660) posted victories over GM Smirin (2655) and GM Morozevich (2711) respectively to move into joint lead. Bologan managed to win with the black pieces while Inarkiev did so with the white pieces in a beautifully played game against an out of sorts Morozevich.

GM Alexei Shirov (2712) too managed to win his first game in this tournament to progress while GM Sutovsky (2635) could only draw.

Check the pairings and results here.

Poikovsky 03: Sutovsky, Inarkiev and Bologan lead!

The 16th Poikovsky Tournament witnessed a strange start with players trading blows for blows. The second seed GM Alexander Morozevich (2711) of Russia lost his first two rounds, but struck in the third round with a win over Israeli GM Illya Smirin (2655).

Israeli GM Emil Sutovsky (2635) won his first two rounds, including against the top seed GM Alexei Shirov (2712), but lost his third game to GM Ernesto Inarkiev (2660).

This means that GM Sutovsky and GM Inarkiev share the lead with the Moldovan GM Viktor Bologan (2607) who is undefeated: all of them at 2.0/3.

Check out the results and pairings here.

Poikovsky 01: Sutovsky and Bologan early leaders

The 16th Poikovsky International Tournament started with the bottom two seeds — Israeli GM Emil Sutovsky (2635) and Moldovian GM Viktor Bologan (2607) — going into an early lead.

While Sutovsky put it across Russian GM Denis Khismatullin (2651) with the white pieces, Bologan was able to beat the second seeded Russian GM Alexander Morozevich (2711) with the black pieces.

Check out the results and pairings here.