Tag: India

China have beaten India 10:6 in a four-round match held in Liaocheng, China from 5-8 March 2017. The Indian team went into the final round knowing they needed to win 3.5:0.5 to save the match, but instead Wei Yi beat Abhijeet Gupta as the Chinese team cruised to victory. That was Wei Yi’s second win, after he also beat his 17-year-old contemporary and Indian Champion Murali Karthikeyan in the previous round.

While Russia and China have played countless “friendly” team matches against each other, this is only the second “China-India summit”, after China beat India 18:14 in the first held in Hyderabad, India back in 2015. While neither team picked even close to their strongest line-up, the match-up represented one of the hottest rivalries in world chess.

When it comes to China, of course, it’s nothing new. They’re the reigning open World Team Champions, women’s Olympiad Champions and have been dominating the women’s individual title for almost three decades now. Tan Zhongyi’s victory in Tehran and Ju Wenjun’s victory in the FIDE Grand Prix series means that even Hou Yifan dropping out of the cycle won’t see the title pass to another country in the near future.

It was a difficult event for Gupta, who had suffered his third loss in a row, while that second win in a row saw Wei Yi edge up to world no. 25 and 2729.3 on the live rating list. Lu Shanglei also scored two wins for China, with only Zhou Jianchao losing any games (two). For India, Sethuraman was the top performer, with one win and three draws, but he couldn’t prevent China emerging as the 10:6 victors.

It’ll be interesting to see how the balance of power has changed in another two years! A little sooner, Wei Yi is top seed in the HDBank Masters that starts on 12th March, with his teammates also competing.

See also:

• Official website
• All the China-India games with computer analysis on chess24

Indian Grand Master Harika Dronavalli hung on to her lead at the top of the table with 5.5 points after the eighth round of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix chess tournament here on Sunday.

Harika, who played with black pieces against Bulgarian Grandmaster and former Women’s World Champion Stefanova Antoaneta, regained equality at an early stage of the game itself and held on to it to grab another half a point.

“Both of us landed in unknown territory at the very start,” said Harika. “But I stabilised quickly and started pushing for a win. My opponent decided to play it safe and repeated her moves to force a draw,” the disappointed Hyderabadi added.

The table didn’t see any changes on Sunday, with all six games ending in draws. The world’s top 12 players are in fray for the top prize, including India’s other Grand Master Koneru Humpy who shared a point with Pia Cramling of Sweden.

Harika, who is seeded fourth in the tournament, will face Khotenashvili Bela of Georgia in the ninth round on Tuesday, with Monday being a rest day.

She just needs to keep her wits about in three more rounds to script one of her biggest victories at the world level.

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Houston, we have an IM – and he is 10 years and ten months of age! Better learn to pronounce his name: Praggnanandhaa, Pragg-na-nan-dhaa. A couple of hours ago he won his ninth round game at the KiiT International Chess Festival in Bhubaneswar, India, and made his third IM norm (after norms in Cannes and Moscow). We congratulate Praggu on this historical achievement.

Uzbek GM Marat Dzhumaev was hanging on to dear life in the chill of Delhi as a ten-year-old youngster kept pressing, giving him no respite. Time pressure did not help the grandmaster either, but he had a lucky escape as he played accurately to hold the draw. The boy seemed to be putting in more efforts to pick the pieces from the last rank than in calculating one of the many tough variations. He was disappointed that he could get no more than a draw.

The title of grandmaster has a certain charm to it that entices people to revere the ones who achieve it. Even more so, when the one who annexes the title is a youngster. Many of the top players today have made it to the youngest grandmasters list in the past. In fact, the World Champion today was the third youngest grandmaster in chess history, and his challenger to the title, Karjakin that is, is the youngest ever. Although it in no way assures what is in store for the future, one thing is certain — the group of juniors who rule the roost today is likely to be ruling the top in the coming decade.

Youngest grandmasters in history

A. Rameshbabu’s children Vaishali and Praggnanandhaa were giving him sleepless nights. The kids were so good at chess that they kept winning titles at state, national and international levels. Vaishali became the Indian National Women’s ‘B’ champion in 2015, besides winning a handful of medals in the various youth events. Praggnanandhaa, besides his share of youth medals, is in the process of rewriting history books. People who knew the siblings understood that both the kids would go far.

In early April, Praggnanandhaa made his way to the Asian Youth Championship 2016, and almost effortlessly won Gold in the Under-12 section, although the field was devoid of any real challenge. On May 23, 2016 he started as the twentieth seed in the KIIT International Open in Bhubaneswar, India with a rating of 2368. And although the tournament is not over yet, and the organisers have not bothered to provide us the PGN, Praggu was well on course to register, at least, his final IM-norm.

Praggnanandhaa has been working with GM R.B. Ramesh for three years now, and Ramesh firmly believes that this is him just doing his thing. Results take care of themselves.

Well, the tournament began, and he managed to defeat GM Karen Grigoryan in the fourth round. Praggnanandhaa has managed to remain solid in the remaining games, barring a loss in the eighth round. He has already touched the 2400 mark in this tournament. He was just a regulation finish away from doing the needful, and he did so, with a win in the ninth round over Al Muthiah (2308), just an hour ago (May 29, 2016). At ten years and ten months of age, Praggnanandhaa has created history by becoming the world’s youngest International Master.

But this is hardly the end, this is just the beginning. Praggnanandhaa is up there in the bunch of prodigies creating humongous waves of late, and he has only just begun. Exciting times ahead!

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