[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

If you stop playing, the ranking freezes at that level.

Thanks! In Tennis, you lose points when you don't play, right? This begs the question, how do the organizers of the highest level masters tournaments invite players? If a top ranked player (e.g. Anand) has not publicly retired, do they keep getting invited to play (and the player declines)?

6 Indian players in top 50!

#9 V. Anand
#19 Vidit Gujarathi
#19 Gukesh D
#34 Pentala Harikrishna
#38 Arjun Erigaisi
#47 Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu

Truly the golden age for Indian chess.

[DigitalOne]

The inaugural Tech Mahindra Global Chess League is happening now in Dubai. It's a team event with 6 teams of 6 players each. Format, rules, points etc are here.

Here is the incredible end game between Carlsen and Vishy Anand.

https://youtu.be/Y6TESL6XLPE

[jkrishnakj]

Anyone tried chessguru.com?
Cool Puzzles and classes. I haven’t taken a paid subscription yet, but I had enjoyed 30 odd puzzles.

[DigitalOne]

Gukesh Breaks Record: Youngest Player To Cross 2750 Rating

This record is currently held by Magnus Carlsen.

Source: Chess.com

GM Gukesh D is expected to be the youngest player to have a published rating of 2750 in history when the next FIDE rating list comes out in 11 days (when he will be 17.17 years old). This news comes just off the heels of his countryman GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu breaking 2700 for the first time, a day ago. The sky seems to be the limit as India's teenage grandmasters continue to break records.

At 17 years, one month, and 21 days, Gukesh is the world number-11 on the live rating list and Indian number two. He closes in on Indian number-one GM Viswanathan Anand's 2754 rating.

[DigitalOne]

Four Indians in the FIDE chess world championship quarter finals .





Screenshot source: Chessbase India on YouTube

[DigitalOne]

Praggnanandhaa beats Caruana in tiebreaks, to meet Carlsen in final

Source: Sportstar

Continuing his dream run, R. Praggnanandhaa took World No 3 Fabiano Caruana out of his comfort zone, and pulled him into shorter time-control games and nailed him to challenge favourite Magnus Carlsen in the final of the FIDE World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Praggnanandhaa, who turned 18 during the World Cup and knocked out second seed Hikaru Nakamura on the way, now becomes the third youngest to qualify for the Candidates Tournament after Bobby Fischer and Magnus Carlsen. He is also the first Indian to reach the World Cup final since the knockout format was introduced in 2005.

[Samurai]

This is one of the most touching videos I have seen on Chess. Chess streamer Anna Cramling walks into Washington Square Park in NYC, along with her mom.

One old veteran offers to teach her mom how to play chess, and gives a beautiful beginner's intro in chess, to the innocent looking mom, who just happens to be a GM. The mom moves the pieces so innocently, the good old teacher doesn't even see he is check-mated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L9NNSadm4g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D19ctG4_rV4

[DigitalOne]

FIDE Candidates tournament starts in Toronto today.

3 Indians in the Open category - D. Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi - and 2 in the Women's category - Vaishali R and Koneru Humpy, make this the best ever representation from India .

In the below video, Magnus Carlsen ranks the candidates players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0gYaXRq3SM

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

3 Indians in the Open category - D. Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi - and 2 in the Women's category - Vaishali R and Koneru Humpy, make this the best ever representation from India .

All of them except Vidit, attend a dinner with Vishy.

https://youtu.be/d6RIHdFX4i0

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

FIDE Candidates tournament starts in Toronto today.

D. Gukesh becomes the sole leader after 13 rounds with an exciting win over Alireza Firouza.

He will play black against the American GM Hikaru Nakamura in the final round.

All this at age 17 !!

Caruana, Nakamura and Nepomniachtchi occupy the second to fourth spot with eight points respectively.

https://youtu.be/hmwzlpn11Q8?si=NLVt6nAWgCzzHzyH

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

FIDE Candidates tournament starts in Toronto today.

3 Indians in the Open category - D. Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi - and 2 in the Women's category - Vaishali R and Koneru Humpy, make this the best ever representation from India .

In the below video, Magnus Carlsen ranks the candidates players.

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=v0gYaXRq3SM

Magnus got it so wrong on Gukesh. Now he can become the Challenger to Ding with a draw ( if the other game favours him) What an outstanding tournament for him ( yet it may still count for nothing if the results don't go in his favour in the last round, of course if he beats Hikaru then he is thru) I think he has a great chance as all the other three need to pay for a win which means they may take some risks but then, they are also far more experienced players and experience does count in chess.

[DigitalOne]

Gukesh becomes the youngest ever challenger . He is the second Indian after V. Anand to win the Candidates tournament.

[Dr.AD]

Great achievement by Gukesh to win the Candidates 2024! Heartiest Congratulations to him! Very well-deserved achievement and best wishes to Gukesh for the upcoming World Championship match!

Unfortunately the whole World Championship cycle feels a bit shallow after Carlsen decided to stay out of it. When the best player in the world, the otherwise undefeated World Champion, and one of the best players in the history of the game decides not to defend his title, the whole point of WC gets defeated. Most chess fans like me felt a bit disappointed and a bit disinterested in the whole WC cycle since Carlsen stepped out.

However, to a large extent, thanks to the amazing nature of the games in this Candidates 2024, lot of those disappointments got forgotten now! The quality of games and the fight on the board was so thrilling this time that even Carlsen must have felt missing out on the fun. This tournament proved that Carlsen or no Carlsen, Chess is thriving and the young generation is better than anything we have seen so far.

Unfortunately the timing of the rounds was very inconvenient for following the games live from India. The rounds started at midnight in India, and by the time the games reached climax, it was often 4am or so. Therefore, I could not follow most of the games live. I mostly depended on seeing the analysis the next morning, and from chitchat on the chess players WhatsApp groups where a strong player from Europe was following each game live and giving us live updates through the nights.

This candidates was very exciting, so many decisive games and new ideas demonstrated. The quality of the games was simply phenomenal. The opening preparations were very exciting, and many players did not shy away from playing very aggressive opening lines which are usually not seen in such top tournaments! For example, the 4. ... f5 gambit by Pragg against Vidit in Round 3, and the remarkably aggressive play after that. This was the kind of chess that was usually absent from the top level tournaments.

In the final round, while Gukesh held Nakamura quite nicely, the real nerve-racking game was Caruana-Nepo. Oh man! What a game!

Caruana had a completely won position, and was on the way to a tie with Gukesh. However, in a crazy nerve-racking game, he could not find the best moves under time pressure! On the other hand, Nepo defended very well in the end, and managed to save the game! In fact, except for the time pressure on Caruana, Nepo would have resigned already. Both Caruana and Nepo played very good chess throughout this tournament too. Nepo has an extremely sharp, aggressive, and creative style of chess, which is so refreshing to see at this level. It is so nice to have players like Nelo in the word's top circuit now!

Look at this position below from Caruana-Nepo in the final round (screenshot of analysis and annotations on lichess. com):



Caruana has a completely won position, and the engines were showing evaluations varying from +5 to +8. In this position, 66. Qe8+ was clearly winning, and Nepo would have resigned in a few moves. But under time pressure, Caruana played 66. Qc6+, giving Nepo a brilliant way to defend, and full credit to Nelo for defending so well from hereon and saving the game. What a thrilling game! This game was more thrilling than any T20 cricket match in IPL

Many players like Nepo, Pragg, Vidit, Firouzja played extremely attacking and thrilling chess. What a generation of chess players!

Pragg played the most aggressive and risky lines. I think one can clearly see the effect of his second, Peter Svidler! Svidler himself is a very creative and dynamic player, and Svidler's creative ideas combined with Pragg's raw aggression gave rise to some amazing games and variations on the board.

While Pragg showed the aggression of the youth, Gukesh demonstrated maturity beyond his age! Gukesh was the most balanced player in the pool, and that makes him the deserving winner of the tournament. Gukesh attacked with impeccable precision when required, but more importantly, defended extremely well when he was under pressure! A strong chess player friend of mine who plays in European circuit commented that "Gukesh defended like Kaprov!", and this is a huge compliment!

The best example of Pragg's aggression and Gukesh's defense was their game in Round 2.

In Pragg-Gukesh, Round 2, Pragg played a very attacking line, even sacrificing a piece, and pushing very hard for a win. But Gukesh defended extremely well, and reached a position where it was Pragg who was forced to find the most creative moves just to save the game. The game reached below position:



Here, Pragg gas a chance to save the game with 25. Nh6+ gxh6 26. Qg4+ Bg5 ( 26. ... Kh8 27. Qd4+) 27. f4 etc. But Pragg missed this and instead played 25. Qg4 and ended up losing the game. However, Gukesh's defensive skills demonstrated through this complex game are Karpov-like!

How did Pragg react to this loss in the next round, round 3? He came back with another very aggressive line, this time with Black!

Pragg played the very risky 4. ... f5 line (very rarely seen in top level chess) against Vidit in Round 3.

See the position and annotation from lichess.com:


Vidit himself played fine chess in the tournament, and had some very strong wins. However, he also missed many chances. In fact, given the extremely complex and wild nature of the games in this tournament (hardly ever seen such wild games at such top level), there were plenty of brilliant wins and also missed chances from all players in this tournament.

Here, is a very interesting wining like that Vidit missed, against Nepo.

Vidit-Nepo position:


The last move, 36. ... d5 be Nepo was a mistake. Now Vidit could have won by the brilliant forced line: 37. Nxd5! Nxd5 38. cxd5 Rxa3 39. Rxa3 c4 40. Kxc4 Bxa3 41. Kb5! Unfortunately, with only about 5 or 6 minutes remaining on the clock that time, Vidit missed this and instead played 37. Kc2 and lost the game eventually.

An interesting point is mentioned in this report: https://www.chess.com/news/view/2024...ament-round-14

At the press conference, Gukesh was asked when he realized he might win. His response showcased his resilience: "If I had to pinpoint a moment where I really felt this could be my moment, it was probably after the seventh game, after I lost to Firouzja... Even though I just had a painful loss, I was feeling at my absolute best. Maybe this loss gave me so much motivation.

Below is a key position from that game which eventually Gukesh lost:



But here, Gukesh did find the most exciting move, 27. Nxf2! which was so amazing to see played on the board.

Overall, what a tournament! The kind of chess that was played here made all the old chess fans like me jump with joy! Chess is back and it is thriving!

So looking forward now to the World Championship match between Ding Liren and Gukesh, although the fact that Carlsen will sit out and he is still the strongest player in the world is hard to totally ignore!

P.S. All screenshots of the analysis and annotations are from lichess.com. All credit to lichess for the annotations!

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

In the final round, while Gukesh held Nakamura quite nicely, the real nerve-racking game was Caruana-Nepo. Oh man! What a game!

Caruana had a completely won position, and was on the way to a tie with Gukesh. However, in a crazy nerve-racking game, he could not find the best moves under time pressure! On the other hand, Nepo defended very well in the end, and managed to save the game!

As expected, the biggest topic all day today in the chess circles has been the Round 14 game between Caruana and Nepo. Both had to win that game to have a chance to catch up with Gukesh. This game turned out to be the most nerve-racking game of the round.

Now that the dust has settled and everyone got a chance to analyze this game in detail, it turns out that it was an incredibly complex game, much more complex than one thought at first. The wins that Caruana missed were not that easy at all, and those were the wins only with the precise engine lines. For a human, even for one of the best human players in the world, those lines were incredibly difficult to compute under time pressure.

Kudos to Nepo for defending it so well. His idea to play 21. ... h4 turned out to be a great resource, and his h pawn proved to be a great counter threat to so many of the White's threats. Nepo defended very resourcefully in an incredibly complex position.

This game will be studied by chess students for ages!

Below is a very good and educational video by one of my favorite chess commentators, GM Danial King. Although the lines are very complex and will require a lot of detailed analysis to follow those lines, in this video, GM King explains the ideas and the plans in relatively simpler terms, and makes it a bit easier to understand this game. This video is absolutely worth watching though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGussQgo6-8