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Tag: gukesh

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Magnus Carlsen to meet Ding Liren in a format called ‘Freestyle Chess’. What’s that?

World No 1 Magnus Carlsen will face off against world champion Ding Liren across the chess board in a new, innovative tournament starting from Friday. It will be the first time the duo will command their miniature armies of carved pieces against each other since the Chinese GM sat down on the throne abdicated by Carlsen without a shot being fired.The duo will face off in a unique format with a twist — a format popularised by the American chess legend Bobby Fischer called freestyle chess. The format promotes creativity from players by having unique starting positions on the board rather than having pieces on the back ranks in the same positions. Besides the reigning world champion Liren and the current world no 1, the invitational tournament — called the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challeng...
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Praggnanandhaa defeats world champion Ding Liren at Tata Steel Masters to become India No 1

Indian teenager Praggnanandhaa defeated reigning World Champion Ding Liren in a fourth round clash at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee on Tuesday. Thanks to the win, Praggnanandhaa also leapfrogged over five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand as the country’s top-ranked chess player in the FIDE’s live ratings with a rating of 2748.3, while Anand is at 2748. (FIDE discloses the published ratings at the start of each month). Pragg became the second Indian after Anand to defeat a reigning world champion in classical chess. Playing with black pieces, Pragg had the advantage on the board from the start. This was his first win in four rounds at the Tata Steel chess event this year after three draws. Coincidentally, Praggnanandhaa had also defeated Ding at the same event with black ...
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Gukesh D one step closer to Candidates after becoming sole leader at Chennai Grand Masters 2023

India’s Gukesh D took a massive leap towards securing a spot at next year’s Candidates tournament after back-to-back victories at the Chennai Grand Masters 2023 tournament which left him as the sole leader in the tournament after five rounds. On Tuesday, Gukesh defeated Russian GM Sanan Sjugirov with black pieces to edge past compatriot GM Pentala Harikrishna into the sole lead at a tournament that could prove critical for him to make the cut for the prestigious Candidates tournament. On Monday, the Indian teenager handed a defeat to Russian grandmaster Alexandr Predke to join compatriot GM Pentala Harikrishna with two and a half points as the joint leader. Monday’s win over Predke had ended a run of three straight draws for Gukesh at the start of the tournament — albeit ones that came ...
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Viswanathan Anand: ‘I want to see a certain amount of fanaticism in young players’

The past month has given ample evidence of how bright the future of Indian chess is, with D Gukesh rising to the India No 1 spot and R Praggnanandha making it to the final of the prestigious FIDE World Cup. But besides their current form and results, what other aspects will separate the upcoming generation of chess players? “A certain amount of fanaticism,” believes Viswanathan Anand, India’s first grandmaster. “If they’re very young, I want to see a certain amount of fanaticism. I think fanaticism is good when you’re in your teens, but quite a few of them have that,” said the five-time world champion on the Conversations with Tyler podcast. While talking specifically about Pragg and Gukesh, he went on to add: “I think maturity is maybe the most important thing because Pragg and Gukes...
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What lies ahead for Praggnanandhaa and pack?

India’s 18-year-old Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa created history by becoming the youngest player to reach the final of a FIDE World Cup earlier this week. He may have lost the final to World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in tiebreakers, but it was undoubtedly his best-ever performance at a major tournament.It was also a breakthrough tournament for India’s ‘Golden Era’ of chess prodigies, with four of them making it to the quarterfinals.Winning the World Cup would’ve been a sensational result for Praggnanandhaa but by just making it to the final, he’s done what no other Indian since five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand has managed to do — secure a spot in the 2024 Candidates Tournament. What level is the World Cup? The World Cup term may seem like it’s the highest tournament for chess playe...
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R Praggnanandhaa: The OG, original child prodigy, now challenger to World No 1 Magnus Carlsen

In the post-pandemic world, a new tidal wave of Indian teenagers had swamped the chess landscape, but the 18-year-old R Praggnanandhaa remains the OG, the original child prodigy. The other bright young stars – D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin – are all walking the path paved by the Chennai boy who goes by the name of Pragg on the global chess circuit. On Monday, Pragg nudged a reminder by downing the reigning US chess champion Fabiano Caruana via the tiebreaker to enter the final in Baku, where Magnus Carlsen, the modern day chess genius, another OG, awaits him. Befittingly, Viswanathan Anand, who breathlessly tweeted about Pragg’s progress, would be moved to post: “what a performance”. Before the COVID-19 pandemic brought over-the-board chess tournaments to a grinding halt, Pragg ...
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FIDE World Cup: Gukesh sets up Magnus Carlsen face-off in quarters

India’s highest-rated chess player Gukesh D has set up a much-awaited quarterfinal clash against five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen in the FIDE World Cup in Baku on Sunday.The 17-year-old Gukesh, who has a live rating of 2761 making him the seventh highest-rated player in the world, played solidly with white pieces to pull off a much-needed draw against China’s Wang Hao for a 1.5-0.5 victory.Carlsen on the other hand, defeated Ukrainian legend Vassily Ivanchuk to show signs that he is peaking at the right time. The quarterfinal will be played on Tuesday. In his post-match interview, the former world champion said Gukesh is one of the world’s top players, so it’s no surprise he made it to the quarterfinal. “We are in the quarters, so you expect to play the top guys. The way he is p...
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GM Gukesh, 17, wins in Baku, to go past Viswanathan Anand as India’s top-ranked chess player

When FIDE, the global governing body of chess, publishes its monthly rating list at the end of this month, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand will not be the top Indian in the published classical chess rankings for the first time in 36 years. Anand’s protege Gukesh D ensured he will end the month as the top-ranked Indian after his victory over Mistradin Iskandrov in the second round of the FIDE World Cup at Baku.The end-of-the-month ratings list will also see Gukesh break into the top 10 ranks for the first time, a lightning-quick rise for a teenager who only broke into the top 100 at the end of April 2022. Only two Indians before this have been in the top 10 — Pentala Harikrishna, who went ahead of Anand briefly in the live ratings in 2016 is the other Indian to have achieved t...
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Young Magnus Carlsen building large Lego sets made his father to teach him chess

In a sport teeming with teenage prodigies, Magnus Carlsen is one of the rare examples of a chess player who converted his early talent to become a world beater. Tales abound of his incandescent talent after he emerged on the world stage: how he once held Garry Kasparov to a draw and took down GM Anatoly Karpov as a teenager even before he was a grandmaster or how, back in the day, he became the second-youngest GM in history. But his rise also holds lessons for the rest of the chess world — particularly for India, which has now seen an explosion of teenage grandmasters over the last decade or so — on how to nurture a teenage prodigy. As Magnus Carlsen’s father Henrik puts it simply, the secret is not to push the kids too much, and let them make their own life decisions. On the sidelines...
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Magnus Carlsen: ‘We’re at beginning of chess revolution in India which started with Vishy Anand’

Five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen believes that India is only at the start of a ‘chess revolution’. The country has seen an explosion in grandmasters in recent years, with the numbers rising from just 20 before 2010, to 82 in the last 13 years. What’s even more heartening for Indian chess is that there are currently nine Indians in the top 100 spots of the FIDE classical chess rankings: Viswanathan Anand (World No 9), Gukesh D (No 13), Vidit Gujrathi (26), Arjun Erigaisi (30), Pentala Harikrishna (32), R Praggnanandhaa (47), Nihal Sarin (53), SL Narayanan (85) and Aravindh Chithambaram (100). Out of them, players like Gukesh, Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa and Sarin are still in their teens. “It’s awesome to see both the interest in chess (from the general public and media in India) an...
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Meals turn into mentoring sessions as Magnus Carlsen takes India’s teenaged trio under wings

On Friday, after the SG Alpine Warriors had lost a game in the Global Chess League against the Viswanathan Anand-led Ganges Grandmasters, a message buzzed on the team’s WhatsApp group chat which has not only all the team players but also people from the ownership group. It was from Magnus Carlsen. The Norwegian World No 1 wanted the team to catch up for a meeting over dinner in the team hotel. The message was more than a dinner invitation. It was a step taken by the team’s enigmatic superstar to put the rest of the team, particularly the three young teenage prodigies — Gukesh D, Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa — into their comfort zone in a franchise-based mixed-team environment, that not many of them had played in before. It was Carlsen’s way of breaking the ice. Gukesh, talking to...
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Chess’ IPL moment arrives with Global Chess League

For a sport that has been making rapid strides since the coronavirus pandemic, chess’ ‘IPL moment’ arrives today: in the form of the Global Chess League where 36 Grandmasters — with a notable number of world champions among them — will compete in a mixed-gender team environment which they’re not accustomed to playing over the course of the regular chess tour.Six teams will feature in the first season of the GCL, which could be a game-changer for a sport that traces its roots to India. For the Indian market, the IPL-isation of the sport comes at an opportune time. The country is fast gaining heft in the world of chess with as many as nine players in the top 100 in classical rankings and 82 GMs. India is also experiencing a boom in the number of casual players and chess fans. “I think I...
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ACF confers Grandmaster D Gukesh with Player-of-the-Year award

Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh has been honoured with Player-of-the-Year award by the Asian Chess Federation (ACF) for clinching the gold medal with a record-breaking score of 9/11 in the 44th Chess Olympiad at Mahabalipuram last year. In March last year, Gukesh became only the sixth Indian to break the 2700 Elo-rating mark, and the youngest Grandmaster from the country to be rated above 2700. Awarded 'The Player of the year' at Asian chess summit in Abudhabi last nightThanks to Asian chess federation and Aicf for the recognition! pic.twitter.com/tnRujSNhrU — Gukesh D (@DGukesh) March 2, 2023 The All India Chess Federation (AICF) bagged the ‘Most Active Federation’ award conferred during the ACF annual summit, which is underway here. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has been conferred...