Banjan

London: Anand has a lucky escape, Vishnu sole winner among the Indians

The Berlin Defense, which has made an appearance in so many of the previous Anand-Carlsen clashes, was summoned once again by the champion players. Anand got a pleasant edge out of the opening, but he misplayed it towards the 40 move mark. Carlsen was not precise as usual and let the Indian ace slip away to a draw. Anand moved to the joint second position in the crosstable behind Anish Giri of Netherlands and Maxime Vachier Lagrave of France, who beat Bulgarian Veselin Topalov.

Among the Indians competing in the FIDE Open being held simultaneously, GM Vishnu Prasanna (2514) was the sole winner among the Indians as he removed IM Sopiko Guramishvili (2368) out of his way. IM Swayams Mishra (2477), IM Sagar Shah (2441), IM Crg Krishna (2367), IM Tania Sachdev (2357), all drew with their higher rated opponents. (Swayams, though, was playing a slightly lower-rated player). All of them move to the joint second place at 3.5/4, behind the leader Gm Evgeny Postny (2670) of Israel, who has a perfect 4.0/4.

Among the untitled players from India, V. Ap Karthik (2310), who had upset French GM Roman Edouard (2627) in the second round, also held a higher rated IM to a draw.

Round 4 Monday 7 Dec, 16.00-23.00
Anish Giri	–	Levon Aronian
Magnus Carlsen	–	Michael Adams
Hikaru Nakamura	–	Viswanathan Anand
Veselin Topalov	–	Fabiano Caruana
Alexander Grischuk	–	M Vachier-Lagrave

National Premier Chess 03: Vidit and P. Karthikeyan held to draws

Four decisive games meant that it was a fighting Tuesday at the Men’s National Premier Chess Championship. Kunte and M. Karthikeyan managed to open their accounts, the latter at the expense of an extremely consistent Venkatesh who remains at a sorry 0/3.

To both Vidit and P. Karthikeyan’s dismay, they were held to draws. Deep and Rathnakaran lost their second consecutive games, the former tragically from a won position. Praneeth caused yet another upset when he took down Dhopade while Shyam Sundar and Arghyadip played out an entertaining draw.

Check the Round 4 pairings here.

Edmonton Chess 09: Bakre finishes joint first

The Alberta Chess Association organised the Edmonton Invitational Tournament with three grandmasters in the fray.

India’s GM Tejas Bakre (2438) was the only competitor in the ten-player field to remain undefeated /throughout the tournament. He finished tied for first at 7.5/9 with USA’s GM Jesse Kraai (2506) and GM Enrico Sevillano (2464).

Check the Final Standings here.

Edmonton Invitational 03: Bakre and Kraai lead

The Alberta Chess Association is organising the Edmonton Invitational Tournament with three grandmasters in the fray.

In round three, GM Jesse Kraai (2506) of USA and India’s GM Tejas Bakre (2438) drew to walk into joint lead at the end of three rounds with 2.5/3.

Check the Round 4 pairings here.

WYCC 2015: Indians win 11 medals in total; 5 Golds

The Indian contingent had a clearly superior performance at the 2015 World Youth Chess Championship at Porto Carras, Greece winning eleven medals. Seventeen countries were competing for thirty-six medals in Open and Girls sections in the Under 08, Under 10, Under 12, Under 14, Under 16 and Under 18 age categories.

None of the other countries could manage more than four medals in their respective tallies. India’s eleven-medal haul includes five gold medals, three silver medals and three bronze medals.

The winners among Indians are mentioned below.

5 Gold medals: Rakshitta Ravi in Girls U-10, Mahalakshmi M in Girls U-18, Praggnanandhaa R in U-10, Vaishali R in Girls U-14 and Bharath Subramaniyam H in U-08.
3 Silver medals: Dev Shah in U-08, Varshini V in Girls U-18, Nihal Sarin in U-12.
3 Bronze medals: Divya Deshmukh in Girls U-10, Salonika Saina in Girls U-12, Vantika Agrawal in Girls U-14.

Bilbao Chess: Wesley So wins Bilbao Masters, 2015

American GM Wesley So (2760) won the tiebreak against Dutch GM Anish Giri (2798) to win the Bilbao Chess Masters, 2015.

Earlier during the day, both the games of Round 6 viz., Ding-Anand and So-Giri ended in draws, forcing a tiebreak match of blitz games to decide the winner among the Dutch and the American grandmasters.

In the first blitz game, Anish Giri built a winning position with the black pieces after So made some suspicious moves in a Queen’s Gambit Declined middlegame. Despite, being a pawn up, Giri failed to convert, and allowed So to fight back. Eventually, Giri ended up blundering a full piece, losing the game. In the second game, playing the white pieces, Giri again had a better position, but So defended hard. After several moves of back and forth, they both agreed to a draw in an opposite-coloured bishop ending.

GM Wesley So won the tie-break match 1.5-0.5, thus winning the tournament.

Bilbao Chess 04: Giri beats Vishy, joins So in the lead

Dutch GM Anish Giri (2798) won an easy game against Indian ace GM Vishy Anand (2803), earning an almost winning position after only eleven moves of an English Opening. The novelty by the young Dutchman on move seven playing the white pieces turned out to be a heavy blow for the five-time former World Champion.

Wesley So (2760) playing the black pieces meanwhile could only hold Chinese GM Ding Liren (2781) to a draw.

Wesley and Giri now lead the Bilbao Chess Masters, 2015, with six points each. Vishy and Ding meanwhile occupy the bottom places with three points apiece.

Bilbao Chess 03: So keeps the lead after drawing with Anand

American GM Wesley So (2760) was held by Indian GM Vishy Anand (2803) to a draw with the black pieces allowing So to keep his lead after three rounds at the Bilbao Chess Masters 2015.

Chinese GM Ding Liren (2782) could not make any progress against Dutch GM Anish Giri (2798), and also settled for a draw. Wesley, who had earlier beaten Ding in the first round, leads the pack with 5 points. Anand and Giri follow the American with 3 points apiece while Ding occupies the bottom spot with only 2 points. The tournament follows an idiosyncratic point tallying format, known as the Bilbao Scoring System, awarding three points for a win, one for a draw and nought for a loss.

Bilbao 02: So leads after both games end in a draw

American GM Wesley So (2760) held Dutch GM Anish Giri (2798) to a draw with the black pieces and kept his lead after two rounds at the Bilbao Masters 2015.

Indian ace GM Vishy Anand (2803) could not make any progress against Chinese GM Ding Liren (2782), and also settled for a draw. Wesley, who had earlier beaten Ding in the first round, leads the pack with 4 points. Anand and Giri follow the American with 2 points apiece while Ding occupies the bottom spot with only 1 point. The tournament follows an idiosyncratic point tallying format, known as the Bilbao Scoring System, awarding three points for a win, one for a draw and nought for a loss.

Hoogeveen Chess 09: Abhijeet Gupta wins

Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta (2629) beat countrymate GM Neelotpal Das (2465) enabling him to win the Hoogeveen Chess tournament with 7.0/9. He was followed by three players tied at 6.5/9.

Indian GM Deep Sengupta (2580) finished second on tiebreak with 6.5/9. Besides Sengupta, Indian GMs, GM Neelotpal Das (2465) and GM Vishnu Prasanna (2503), finished at 6.0/9. Among other Indians, GM G.N. Gopal (2536) and GM Debashis Das (2501) finished at 5.5/9. GM Ankit Rajpara (2467) and IM Arghyadip Das (2467) mustered up 5.0/9.

Check the final standings here.