Aditya Sukhlecha (1569) Stuns Shavdirov Jahongir (1917)

The heartening feature of this event for our trainees is that each of them have been able to defeat a higher ranked player in the Asian School Chess Championship 2011 in progress here at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. In the 6th round it was the turn of Aditya Sukhlecha as he defeated 6th seeded Shavidirov Jahongir of Uzbekistan to move on to 4/6 in the U-13 section.    

Aditya, Aakash, Shrey and Kushal Wins

The round-5 of the Asian Schools Chess Championship 2011 in progress here at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, New Delhi turned out to be a good one for the trainees as four players, Aditya, Shrey, Kushal and Aakash recorded victories over their respective rivals. Aditya has moved on 3/5 while Shrey and Kushal are on 2.5/5 and Aakash on 2/5. Four more remains to be played in this event to decide the Asian School Champions in the 6 age-group categories:    

ICS 3rd Mumbai Open: Registration Module goes Online!!

The much-awaited online module for registration of entries in connection with the participation in the ICS 3rd Mumbai Open FIDE Rating Chess Tournament has gone on-line yesterday night! My thanks to our IT specialist and a Chess lover, Sumit Pilankar for doing this at a very hectic pace!! This idea is totally his brain-child and I hope that it gets picked up by most of the organizers. For interested players, this will be a new experience of confirming their entries. No more telephone calls or sms!! Moreover, in the ‘List of Confirmed’ entries, they can very well see their names!! For…

Art of Living Course + Chess Tournament: 24-26 December, 2011

Before I give the details of the unique tournament organized by my senior, Shri D.B. Pulekar and my friends Amardeep and Rashmin, let me take you 30-years down the memory lane! Mumbai, at that time was one of the powerhouses of Chess in the country and the Zandu Canteen its Mecca (Yes, the same ‘Zandu Balm’ of Munni!! – Alas, the new owner did not realize that how famous ‘Zandu ’ become because of Chess all these 50-years and closed the place permanently for Chess around a year back – I hope that this article should come to their notice…

All Set for the 3rd ICS FIDE Rating for Mumbai Players

Further to my post of the hosting the 3rd edition of our FIDE Rating Chess Tournament from 27-31 December, 2011, there is a slight change: The tournament is now only for the Mumbai players – my apology to all my friends from the entire State of Maharashtra who were keen on playing in this tournament. However, I assure you that we would soon be holding one All India Open very soon in the near future to offset this change. Well, the stage has been set to hold the event in a grand manner – we are likely to raise some…

Yifan Retains her Crown!

Somwhere in our heart there was a little hope, just that tiny bit of silver lining in the dark clouds which had hovered all these day, that a miracle would happen and Humpy would bounce back. Alas, no miracle happended – perhaps the God was Chinese! The 8th game, in a ‘must-win’ situation for Humpy ended in a draw after 29-moves, which helped Yifan in reaching the magic figure of 5.5 to retain her World Championship Crown. Congratulations Yifan! You are a worthy champion!! For Humpy she would like to forget this event as early as possible, get back to the drawing board…

The Story of GM!

This story was written by me immediately after the end of 1st IPL and to my satisfaction it had found itself being uploaded on prominent web sites. It was also published in the AICF chronicle. The Story of GM (This is a work of fiction and, resemblance to any person, living or dead is purely co-incidental and unintentional) This is the story of Govind Mohan Lal, affectionately known as ‘GM‘ in the Chess Circuit! He had a bad day in the office and he was livid with himself. He had drawn his crucial 6th round game against his old foe…

Botswana: Creating Chess Cult in Africa!!

The big African continent is in deep Chess slumber but one of its tiny nations, Botswana is all set wake up the giant from its sleep by hosting the 1st ever FIDE CACDEC FIDE Trainer’s Seminar at Gaborone from 03rd to 08th August 2008 and, in the process got 10 Licensed Chess Trainers! Botswana has only 31-rated players (inactive and active) inclusive of 1 FM & 1 WFM and very few tournaments. As such, when FIDE decided to provide this opportunity through CACDEC, it was wholeheartedly welcomed by the Chess fraternity of Botswana with 10-trainers (including one from Somalia) registering…