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KOLKATA: India's tryst with major global chess event proved to be short-lived as the Grand Chess Tour (GCT) has decided to skip Kolkata as a venue for one of its legs this season.

The city had the honour of becoming the first in Asia to host a segment of the GCT rapid and blitz meet at Bhasha Bhawan of the iconic National Library last November. It was the biggest chess event to visit the Indian shores and saw eight of the top 15 Grandmasters participating.

Near packed house on all the five playing days left the organisers extremely happy and they expressed desire to make Kolkata a permanent stop for the Tour.

However, much to the dismay of chess lovers of India, the GCT calendar this year does not feature Kolkata.

The sixth edition of the GCT will see a truncated edition with five legs instead of eight that were played last year.

While the number of full tour participants was 12 in the last edition, it has come down to 10 this time. Not only will there be no Indian cities as venue, none of the country's players have found place on the roster. Last time, India No. 1 Viswanathan Anand was one of the prominent faces in the GCT. Apart from him, India's Pentala Harikrishna and Vidit Gujrathi were given wildcards for the Kolkata leg.

While the fifth edition of the GCT featured three classical and five rapid and blitz meets, this edition will see two classical and three rapid and blitz events.

"The main reason for curtailing the number of tour events this year was scheduling," GCT technical director Graham Jurgensen told TOI.

"The Chess Olympiad takes place for most of August while the World Championship event takes place for almost the entire month of November," he stated. "The combination and importance of these two events coupled with the impact on the St Louis events made it difficult for us to schedule additional GCT events in the last three months of the year," he explained.

See original here:
Kolkata out of GCT calendar this year - Times of India

A collection of neatly arranged trophies occupy a wooden shelf at K Priyankas home. I have more than 200. My father bought that shelf in 2008 after the prizes started to come in, says the 18-year-old chess player.

Priyanka recently bagged the Woman International Master (WIM) title at the IIFL Wealth Mumbai International Chess Tournament, becoming the first person from the city to win it. She played against Mithil Ajgaonkar from Maharashtra in the competition. He is a higher rated player than I am and it was a tough match. He played well, but I did better, smiles Priyanka who started playing chess as an eight year old after watching her father and grandfather playing. I would observe the game for hours. My dad taught me the rules and soon I was contesting in competitions. The first was a local championship and I came fourth. In the next six months, Priyanka was competing in State tournaments and, in 2011, represented the country at the World Chess Championship in Brazil. I was too young to understand its significance. But now, as I think back, I understand how big an opportunity it was, she says.

It was not always easy. In 2012, her father passed away in an accident and that caused a gap in her playing. But, after a point, she missed the game and started to participate in championships again. Those were dark times. It took me two years before I could bring myself to play chess again. I lost in most competitions and did not know how to handle failures. I was under a lot of pressure. It took me a while to realise that doing my best was all that mattered. This helped me get back on track, she recalls.

Priyanka won the first norm out of the three to win the Woman International Master title in 2016 at the World Junior Chess Championship held at Bhubaneswar. The second was in 2018 at the Goa Grandmaster Chess tournament. It took me three years to win the final norm. I missed it many times by minute point differences, she says.

Being a Woman International Master gives her many privileges. She does not have to pay participation fee and also gets free accommodation at many championships, something that is of great help as she is yet to find a sponsor.

Favourite players

Priyanka works hard to stay in form. I do not have a fixed schedule, but I usually practise for at least eight hours every day. I analyse games of other players and see how they plot their moves. She trains under grandmaster Vishnu Prasanna from Chennai. We do online sessions where he clears my doubts, she says.

Balancing studies and chess is hard, admits Priyanka. I am in class XII at Chinmaya Vidyalaya and it is an important year of my life. I have missed most of my classes and now I only have a month to catch up on my portions before the board exam. I plan to concentrate on my studies for the time being. I will be back in championships from April, she says. Priyanka dreams of winning the coveted Grandmaster title. Another dream is to be a civil servant. I know it is tough but it is also possible, she smiles.

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View original post here:
Advantage Priyanka; K Priyanka on becoming a Woman International Master - The Hindu

Most serious players I know would just as soon keep something as important as chess and something as trivial as politics as far apart as possible.

But this is the season of caucuses and impeachments, and the global FIDE chess organization, whose membership includes Israel and Palestine, China and Taiwan, Azerbaijan and Armenia, the U.S. and Cuba and Kosovo and Serbia, has found itself in the middle of some sticky political wickets over the years.

Many of the most recent ones involve a country that, ironically, has been a major success story on the chess front: Iran. The country that gave us the word checkmate has one of the deepest and strongest chess programs in the Middle East, and boasts as a rising superstar in 16-year-old GM Alireza Firouzja.

But Iranian players have been docked for refusing under orders from officials in Tehran to play against Israeli competitors. (Firouzja, whom some tout as a future world champion contender, has recently been playing under the FIDE flag rather than his home country to sidestep the ban.) And major newspapers around the world have tracked the plight of Shohreh Bayat, the highly respected arbiter who refereed the recent womens world title match, but now says she is afraid to go home after a picture circulated of her at the match not wearing the headscarf mandated for women in Iran.

Still, you could argue things have actually improved in recent years. In the depths of the Cold War, the rivalry between East and West and the long Soviet dominance of chess routinely put a heavy political spin on high-stakes chess matches. It wasnt just Fischer-Spassky this year marks the 50th anniversary of the epic USSR vs. the World team challenge in Belgrade, the so-called Match of the Century that produced both some memorable chess and some down-and-dirty politics.

The event may be best remembered for the stunning decision by Fischer returning to the game after a lengthy absence and two years away from his date with destiny in Reykjavik to step aside and let Danish GM Bent Larsen play first board for the West.

Although the Soviets boasting Spassky and four former world champs in its 10-player lineup were heavily favored, the World team ended losing by the barest of margins, 20-19, with Fischer chipping in with a 2-0-2 whipping of former champ Tigran Petrosian on Board 2. Larsen held his own against Spassky, with 1 points in three games, but was on the wrong end of one of the most one-sided losses of the event.

Larsen played his own pet opening (1. b3) in Game 2, but its Black who looks like he knows what hes doing. Spassky already has a free and easy development after 6. Nxc6 dxc6 7. e3 (d4?! exd3 8. Qxd3 Qe7 is much better for Black) when things go sideways in a hurry for White on 10. f4?! Ng4! (already threatening the crushing 11Rxd2! 12. Nxd2 [Qxd2 Nxe3 13. g3 Rd8 14. Qc1 Ng2+ 15. Kf1 Bh3 16. Bg4+ Bxg4 17. Kxg2 Bf3+ 18. Kf1 Qd7] Nxe3 13. Qc3 Nxg2+ 14. Kd1 Rd8, with an overwhelming attack.

Its over after one more bad defensive move: 11. g3 h5 12. h3? (h4, closing the flank and accepting a bad position, was the only option) h4! 13. hxg4 hxg3 14. Rg1 (Rxh8 Rxh8 15. gxf5 [Bf1 Rh1 16. Ke2 Bxg4+] Rh1+ 16. Bf1 g2) Rh1!, and White is busted. There followed 15. Rxh1 (Kf1 Rxg1+ 16. Kxg1 Qh4 17. gxf5 Qh2+ 18. Kf1 Qf2 mate) g2 16. Rf1 (Rg1 loses to 16Qh4+ 17. Kd1 Qh1! 18. Qc1 Qxg1+ 19. Kc2 Qxc1+ 20. Bxc1 Bh7 21. Nc3 g1=Q) Qh4+ 17. Kd1 gxf1=Q+, and White resigned just ahead of mate in three on 18. Bxf1 Bxg4+ 19. Kc1 Qe1+ 20. Qd1 Qxd1 mate.

The close final result was considered a major embarrassment for the Soviet chess machine, and the sting might have been even greater but for todays second game, the last-round match between GM Viktor Korchnoi, who six years later would defect to the West, and Hungarian star Lajos Portisch. For the fury of Fischer and others, Portisch won the exchange and built up a nearly won position, only to allow a draw with a threefold repetition.

In the final position, after, say, 25Qb5 26. 0-0-0 d6 27. Ne4 Qc4+ 28. Nc3, Whites king is completely safe and the win is just short of a matter of technique. Had Portisch taken the full point, the Match of the Century would have ended in a 20-20 tie.

The mix of politics and chess at its least attractive may have at last been found: The Collectors Edition 2020 Battle for the White House Chess Set, with President Trump as the Red king, aided by Vice President Mike Pence as the Red queen (hmmm), and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other conservative luminaries as the pieces. The Blue king and queen have yet to be crafted with impeccable detail, but Team Blue does include former President Barack Obama as one rook, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer as knights, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg as a bishop.

Most details, including the Red elephant and Blue donkey pawns, can be found at chess2020.com. It may be a good conversation starter, but if you have a serious chessplayer with a birthday or bar mitzvah coming up, think long and hard before clicking on the link.

Larsen-Spassky, USSR vs. the World, Belgrade, March 1970

1. b3 e5 2. Bb2 Nc6 3. c4 Nf6 4. Nf3 e4 5. Nd4 Bc5 6. Nxc6 dxc6 7. e3 Bf5 8. Qc2 Qe7 9. Be2 O-O-O 10. f4 Ng4 11. g3 h5 12. h3 h4 13. hxg4 hxg3 14. Rg1 Rh1 15. Rxh1 g2 16. Rf1 Qh4+ 17. Kd1 gxf1=Q+ White resigns.

Portisch-Korchnoi, USSR vs. the World, Belgrade, March 1970

1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 e6 6. g3 Qb6 7. Nb3 Ne5 8. e4 Bb4 9. Qe2 O-O 10. f4 Nc6 11. e5 Ne8 12. Bd2 f6 13. c5 Qd8 14. a3 Bxc3 15. Bxc3 fxe5 16. Bxe5 b6 17. Bg2 Nxe5 18. Bxa8 Nf7 19. Bg2 bxc5 20. Nxc5 Qb6 21. Qf2 Qb5 22. Bf1 Qc6 23. Bg2 Qb5 24. Bf1 Qc6 25. Bg2 Draw agreed.

David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email [emailprotected].

Here is the original post:
Playing politics -- some of us would rather be playing chess - Washington Times

The West Orange Chess Club is one of the longest-running chess clubs in New Jersey.

Currently consisting of 30 members, however, none of them are women. John Hagerty, the president of the club, hopes for change, not only in New Jersey, but in the United States.

Started in 1978 with four members, the club continued to win tournaments and championships, even landing them on the cover of Chess Life Magazine in 2011. Hagerty continues to promote chess and strives for more diversity. The club consists of many diverse careers including engineers, machinists, personal trainers and lawyers. They had a few women as members in the past but not currently.

As for diversity in ethnicity, about half of its members are black, South Asian or Chinese Americans. Hagerty said that is the typical breakdown for this particular area.

As to why there is a minority of activity in the U.S. among women is unknown. The game of chess is more popular in Europe and Asia. I wish that it was more popular among women, unfortunately chess is a very male dominated activity, although some women achieve grandmaster stature (the highest level of Chess). Hagerty states.

According to USChess.org, one top grandmaster is Jennifer Shahade, who is a is a two-time U.S. Womens Championship, author, commentator and editor of uschess.org. Hagery spoke very highly of Shahade and how she is continuing to promote Chess.

Most chess played at the grandmaster stature, women compete equally to men. Hagerty said, I want to make that clear. Occasionally, there will be women only events for promotional purposes but it is all the same ranking systems and formulas, Hagerty states.

Hagerty thinks there are two theories as to why. Some people believe that the way of thinking in chess appeals to a mans perspective at solving problems. On the other hand, some people think that the cultural concepts and negative reinforcements or stereotype factors. Hagerty, a retired machinist, has received backhanded compliments himselfyou dont look like a chess player.

Take for example, the card game Bridge, about 40% of women play this card game more than chess, said Hagerty. Unfortunately, chess clubs in the United States dont have a program to push chess towards women. Hagerty hopes that changes for the future.

For the past 10 years, Hagerty in his spare time, teaches children about chess in after school and library programs. Currently, he teaches at the Cedar Grove Library on Friday afternoons, from 3:45 to 5 p.m. He has about 8 to 10 children in the program. He has also conducted programs at Gregory Elementary in West Orange, Roseland Library, Caldwell Library and the Verona Public Library.

If there is enough interest in an after school or library program, I will arrange plans, Hagerty said. He composes beginner packets to hand out to the children. During the one hour session, he shows them a demo game and lets them play, while making sure they are conducting legal moves.

It is important they dont feel pressured but are shown the right way to play. If some kids are interested, I will show them the more competitive chess tournaments, states Hagerty. The Westfield YMCA will host chess tournaments where 60% are kids under the age of 14.

According to Hagerty, inner cities have more success promoting the game of chess rather than in Caucasian suburban communities. The game doesnt require much monetary investments to play, as opposed to sports, which can be cost prohibiting.

My personal theory is that chess is more popular in inner cities. I notice that some schools are pushing for chess in general. Hagerty continues,It teaches logic, planning, alters your ideas of thinking, structures your thinking and teaches you discipline. Kids who tend to struggle in school, seem to do better in school after they take up chess.

For those who are interested in learning more about chess can access chess.com. It has tutorials and the ability to compete against other players around the world in a matter of minutes.

The internet helps bring exposure to chess and enables people to compete with others all over the world. Hagerty continues, Unfortunately, the internet loses the companionship of the game; it loses that personal interaction. There is a love/hate relationship among chess clubs and the internet.

Hagerty hopes for more women, more diversity and more promotion of the game of chess in the United States. West Orange welcomes people of all ages and playing abilities.

We dont let politics get in the way of pursuing our passion, said Hagerty.

See more here:
Long-running N.J. chess club strives to be as diverse as the people who call the Garden State home - nj.com

Chess.com's newest Coach of the Month is CM Gabor Horvath! Gabor is a much-acclaimed coach on Chess.com with numerous enthusiastic testimonials on his profile. He is also a top blogger who regularly shares some of the most instructive blog content available on Chess.com.

Readers seeking private instruction can contact Gabor Horvath via his Chess.com profile (@GaborHorvath) and can find other skilled coaches at Chess.com/coaches.

Interview with Gabor:

Chess.com: At what age were you introduced to chess, and who introduced you?

I learned chess from my father when I was six. He was a reasonably strong amateur, and he was my only regular opponent for the first several years of my chess career.

What is your first vivid memory from chess?

I saw the game Judit Polgar vs. Pavlina Chilingirova in a newspaper, and the finishing queen sacrifice really fascinated me. It was played at the 28th Olympiad in Thessaloniki, where 12-year-old Judit Polgar made 12 points out of 13 and achieved a 2694 Elo performance.

A few days later I was playing against my father, and I got the chance to use the exact same tactical motif: a queen sac on f8, bishop check on h6, and checkmate with the rook on e8. At the time finding such a combination was way above my level, so I was really proud of it. Of course, it was just simple pattern recognition, but I thought I was a genius.

Which coaches were helpful in your chess career, and what was the most useful knowledge they imparted to you?

I had the fortune of learning from two heavyweight professional coaches, IM Bla Molnr and IM Gyula Mszros. They both gave lectures in our club, and I also had one-on-one lessons with IM Mszros.

IM Bla Molnr also coached the future grandmasters Gbor Papp, Gyula Pap, Krisztin Szab, and IM Anna Rudolf. IM Gyula Mszros was the coach for junior world champions Tams Fodor and Ferenc Berkes. Both are also grandmasters now.

The most valuable things I learned from my coaches were:

The stuff I learned from them is actually very similar to the advice I found in the books of Mark Dvoretsky and Artur Yusupov which is kind of reassuring.

Which game do you consider your masterpiece?

I have a few memorable games against titled players, like my win against IM Bla Molnr (it is always special when you beat your coach for the first time!), IM Tibor Krolyi, GM Luke McShane (OK, it was only a simul game, but still, he is a super-grandmaster!), and IM Alan Merry.

All those games are far from perfect though, so if have to choose one which can be considered flawless (if there is such thing at all), then I will pick my win against Mel OCinneide:

How would you describe your approach to chess coaching?

My highest priority is to make sure that my students understand and apply the principles of chess because this is the foundation of further improvement. I also find that this is what most of my students desperately need, and usually we have to start that work from ground zero.

The tricky thing about chess principles is that they sound deceptively simple. You hear them once, and you think you are done with them, because you understand the concept, but this is actually not enough. You need to practice how to apply them by solving specific exercises until they become second nature to you. It is a bit like building muscle memory in physical sports.

I put a lot of emphasis on solving studies and learning endgames because they are tremendously useful to improve the thinking processes and problem-solving abilities of the student.

As I am also a big fan of IM Mark Dvoretsky, I follow his advice and try to make my lessons as exercise-centered as possible, keeping passive learning to a minimum.

What do you consider your responsibilities as a coach, and which responsibilities fall on your student?

My responsibility is 1) to provide my student with quality training material which is tailored to their level and individual needs and 2) to make them train actively. The responsibility of the student is to use the material and solve the exercises. There is no point in having a chess coach if you only try to soak up knowledge passively. You can do that by reading books and watching videos. A chess coach is like a personal fitness trainer: He makes YOU work hard.

What advice do you give your students that you think more chess players could benefit from?

Study endgames and solve studies regularly! Dont neglect them thinking that you will never get such positions in a practical game because this is not the point. Solving endgame problems will make you a better player overall. As Artur Yusupov puts it:

I also believe in the interactive effect of endgame study. It makes easier to judge and use the potential of the pieces and to understand their interaction. So not only our endgame technique but also our intuition and positional understanding are refined. In the endgame, plans must be found all the time so it sharpens our strategic eye as well.

What is your favorite teaching game that users might not have seen?

I use a lot of classical games, but they are all well known, so I will show one of my own games. It is not a particularly brilliant one, but I find it very useful when teaching positional chess because there is hardly anything to calculate with Black. It is all about principles and piece improvement.

What puzzle do you give students that tells the most about how they think?

I prefer to use a set of puzzles and complete games for that because I dont think that one single puzzle tells you much. You can measure some specific skills with one puzzle, though. For example, I like to use this one to test visualization skills:

It is White to move and checkmate in twelve. Every move is a check, and Black has hardly any choices so it is very straightforward. I can even tell you the first move: It is 1.Qxc7+. The challenge is to calculate the whole thing without moving the pieces and to remember at all times where the pieces are.

Some people struggle at move five, but I also had a 10-year-old girl who could see everything and solved the exercise in a few minutes.

Do you prefer to teach online or offline? What do you think is different about teaching online?

I prefer to teach online because there is no need to set up the pieces, and I have access to all my training materials at any time.

What do you consider the most valuable training tool that the internet provides?

The tools that help you learn openings using the flash-card concept. They are still in their infancy, so they dont really fulfill their purpose yet, but I expect a major breakthrough in this area soon. I have been experimenting a lot with Chess Position Trainer recently (true, this is actually a software, not an internet tool), and after some trial and error, I think I have finally figured out how to use it effectively.

Which underappreciated chess book should every chess player read?

I would recommend "Chess Training for Candidate Masters" by Alexander Kalinin. Even if you are not a Candidate Master, you will find it useful to familiarize yourself with the philosophy of the Russian chess school.

Prior coach of the month winners:

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Coach Of The Month: CM Gabor Horvath - Chess.com