All posts tagged: India chess

R Vaishali, Bibisara Assaubayeva set up final-round photo finish in Women’s Candidates

R Vaishali, Bibisara Assaubayeva set up final-round photo finish in Women’s Candidates

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3 min readApr 15, 2026 12:32 AM IST India’s Vaishali Rameshbabu will head into the final round of the Women’s Candidates tournament on Wednesday in joint lead with Kazakh grandmaster Bibisara Assaubayeva on a dramatic day in Cyprus. Both players have a score of 7.5 points heading into the final round, to set up an exciting photo finish. Half a point behind them is the Chinese phenom Zhu Jiner. Vaishali was held to a draw by the former women’s world champion from China, Tan Zhongyi. When she walked out of the playing hall on Tuesday, she would have felt like her chance to secure a shot at winning the Women’s Candidates was more or less over since her competitor for the top spot, Zhu Jiner, was in a winning position against Aleksandra Goryachkina. But under pressure of converting the game, Zhu crumbled, thus handing the 24-year-old Vaishali another lifeline to secure a battle in the Women’s World Chess Championship against Ju Wenjun. The 22-year-old Bibisara Assaubayeva also snuck into the joint lead after defeating Anna …

Gukesh’s struggles end with consolation win; Aravindh ends joint 2nd, Divya Deshmukh finishes in 3rd place

Gukesh’s struggles end with consolation win; Aravindh ends joint 2nd, Divya Deshmukh finishes in 3rd place

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3 min readMumbaiUpdated: Mar 7, 2026 08:16 AM IST World Champion D Gukesh’s wretched fortnight at Czech Republic ended with a consolatory victory over Spanish grandmaster David Anton on Friday night. In nine rounds at the Prague International Chess Festival, the win over Anton was the only time the 19-year-old from India experienced a victory with three of his games ending in defeats and five others being draws. While Gukesh ended joint last in the 10-player standings at Prague, compatriot Aravindh Chitambaram ended joint second. Aravindh was the defending champion coming into the event, but saw his title taken by Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who’s gone on a tear in recent events, winning titles in London and Wijk aan Zee before the Prague event. In the Challengers section, Divya Deshmukh, who used the event to sharpen her campaign for the upcoming Women’s Candidates later this month, ended third in the standings with a rating gain of 13. In contrast to Gukesh’s campaign, Divya lost just once (to fellow Candidates contender Zhu Jiner) over nine boards while …

Nihal Sarin bounces back with second straight win at Asian Chess Championship

Nihal Sarin bounces back with second straight win at Asian Chess Championship

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India’s top seed Nihal Sarin returned to strong form with his second consecutive victory at the Asian Individual Chess Championship on Friday, moving into joint second place after three rounds. Facing Iran’s Reza Mahdevi with the white pieces, Nihal opted for the Queen’s Gambit and maintained a firm grip on the game from the outset. His dominance grew steadily through the middlegame, and he eventually converted the advantage into a smooth win in a minor piece endgame. The two bishops proved to be decisive for the 20-year-old Indian Grandmaster. With this result, Nihal now sits just behind Iran’s Baradiya Danehswar, who leads the tournament with a perfect 3/3 score. #Chess ♟️| R. Praggnanandhaa secured his first win of the tournament, propelling him to joint top of the leaderboard at the Superbet Chess Classic Romania 2025. Read:https://t.co/7j8EWserGB — The Bridge (@the_bridge_in) May 10, 2025 Among other Indians, L R Srihari impressed with a solid performance against former World Junior Champion Abhijeet Gupta. Meanwhile, P Iniyan and Murali Karthikeyan remain in contention to finish in the top …

Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa play out a draw in Opener

Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa play out a draw in Opener

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Indian chess stars D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa began their Superbet Chess Classics 2025 campaigns with a closely contested draw in the first round of the prestigious tournament in Bucharest, Romania. Gukesh, who recently became the youngest World Chess Champion, started with a Queen’s pawn opening. At the same time, Praggnanandhaa responded with the Queen’s Gambit Accepted — a line Gukesh had previously used in a key game during his title run. Both players prepared deeply, setting the stage for a tactical battle early on. Gukesh appeared to gain the upper hand by the 20th move, applying pressure with strong positioning. However, a strategic miscalculation — exchanging his queen for a rook and minor pieces — allowed Praggnanandhaa back into the game. Another slip by Gukesh saw the momentum shift further, and Praggnanandhaa capitalised to level the position. The game eventually ended in a 35-move draw, with both players settling for half a point. Meanwhile, France’s Alireza Firouzja and the USA’s Wesley So made strong starts, scoring victories over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) and Deac Bogdan-Daniel …

Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025 Round 2: Praggnanandhaa beats Harikrishna; Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi held to draws | Chess News

Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025 Round 2: Praggnanandhaa beats Harikrishna; Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi held to draws | Chess News

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How Gukesh won 1st game as chess world champion after finding lucky escape route vs Anish Giri Gukesh managed to win his first match as world champion. The win came despite him only landing in Wijk aan Zee on Saturday morning after the Khel Ratna felicitation on Friday evening in New Delhi. (Screenshot: YouTube/Chess24) Just when checkmate seemed inevitable, with Gukesh running out of options — and out of time on the clock to think — Anish Giri made a blunder that will haunt the attic of his mind for years to come. In one hasty move of the wrist, Anish Giri had handed his 18-year-old opponent a get-out-of-jail-free card. Gukesh, who won the world championship last month on a similar blunder from his opponent Ding Liren, is not one to refuse gifts across the board. READ MORE Disclaimer: We do not own any of the content, ideas, images, or text presented here. All rights belong to their respective owners. For more information and to view the original source, please visit the following link: Source …

How Gukesh won 1st game as chess world champion after finding escape route vs Anish Giri

How Gukesh won 1st game as chess world champion after finding escape route vs Anish Giri

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Anish Giri slumped on the backrest of his chair and stayed there for a while. Then, he hunched over and planted a palm on his forehead in a universally accepted sign of anguish. He’d just spent most of the first round game at the Tata Steel chess tournament forcing his opponent, the newly-minted world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, into a corner. Just when checkmate seemed inevitable, with Gukesh running out of options — and out of time on the clock to think — Anish Giri made a blunder that will haunt the attic of his mind for years to come. In one hasty move of the wrist, Anish Giri had handed his 18-year-old opponent a get-out-of-jail-free card. Gukesh, who won the world championship last month on a similar blunder from his opponent Ding Liren, is not one to refuse gifts across the board. The 18-year-old from Chennai only landed in the Dutch city of Wijk aan Zee for the tournament on Saturday morning after receiving the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award from President Droupadi …

Get latest updates on Gukesh D, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa R, Luke Mendonca chess matches

Get latest updates on Gukesh D, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa R, Luke Mendonca chess matches

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Gukesh teaches Viswanathan Anand about ‘drip’ in hilarious ad Gukesh, who recently became the youngest world champion in history, in an ad with five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand. (Credit: Instagram/gukesh.official) Who says chess players are always serious? A new ad featuring the youngest world champion in chess history, Gukesh, and five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand portrays the trailblazing chess duo from India in a funny light. In the ad, Anand tells Gukesh that he needs his help to connect with Gen Z kids and learn the lingo. “Sir nobody can teach this especially at your age,” says Gukesh in the video before correcting himself quickly “… at your stature, I meant. The thing is you need to know pop culture!” At this, Anand jumps to his feet and poses like Michael Jackson and says “I know Michael Jackson.” READ MORE Disclaimer: We do not own any of the content, ideas, images, or text presented here. All rights belong to their respective owners. For more information and to view the original source, please visit the following …

Sleepless, winless but finally fearless: Koneru Humpy describes her World title rollercoaster | Chess News

Sleepless, winless but finally fearless: Koneru Humpy describes her World title rollercoaster | Chess News

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A Rapid world champion in 2019, Koneru Humpy had contemplated retiring before she went on to pick the 2024 title at Wall Street in New York on Saturday. She battled despairing results before turning it around right when it mattered. Humpy told PTI it had been a tough leadup. “In 2019, I was quite ambitious, waiting to win my first title. But this time it was different because since the start of the year, I didn’t do well in any of the tournaments. In fact, I was placed last in the last two tournaments. In reality, I was in a low state, I even thought to myself if I deserved to continue playing or not, whether it was time to retire,” she was quoted as saying after emerging the champion. The 37-year-old Humpy finished the tournament with 8.5 out of 11 points, and became only second woman since China’s Ju Wenjun to clinch the title more than once. “I’m very excited and I feel very happy. In fact, I expected it to be a very …

Controversy in Uzbekistan as Vantika Agrawal’s draw turns to loss

Controversy in Uzbekistan as Vantika Agrawal’s draw turns to loss

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There was controversy at a chess tournament in Uzbekistan after India’s chess star Vantika Agrawal was handed a defeat at the President’s Cup in Uzbekistan in a game she had drawn. The nine-round tournament is taking place in Uzbekistan’s Tashkent. The event started on Thursday with round 3 being played on Saturday. Vantika Agrawal protested on social media how her draw in round 3 had unfairly been changed into a defeat and because of bizarre rules, there was no way to get it changed. Vantika was taking on Mukhammadzokhid Suyarov of Uzbekistan. “My game in 3rd round of President’s Cup in Uzbekistan ended as a draw. I submitted the scoresheet with the right result. Then when I checked the pairing (for round 4) it was published as a loss for me. I immediately mailed them and informed them but they said that it’s FIDE’s rule that they can’t do anything,” Vantika Agrawal lamented in a social media post. “So I want to ask FIDE why they made such a rule. If it’s arbiter’s mistake why …

How Arjun Erigaisi took down Magnus Carlsen in 20 moves in blitz game

How Arjun Erigaisi took down Magnus Carlsen in 20 moves in blitz game

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In a little less than six minutes and with just 20 moves on the board, Magnus Carlsen, the world’s greatest player of this generation, had waved the white flag of surrender in a blitz game. His conqueror, 21-year-old Arjun Erigaisi, had done the unthinkable: inflict a defeat on the World No.1, the Norwegian’s first at the Tata Steel Chess India tournament in 17 games across the rapid and blitz formats. Not to mention, Arjun Erigaisi was playing with black pieces. In the span of those 20 moves, Arjun Erigaisi had made things deeply uncomfortable for Magnus Carlsen on the board. The World No.1 looked away into the sea of people seated on his left at the Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium in Kolkata, muttered things to himself under his breath, shook his head in self-dejected annoyance and probably made a captured piece very nauseous by rapidly turning it over and over in his hand with the vigour of a spin bowler. By the time the end came and a dejected Magnus Carlsen extended his hand across the …