Sri Lanka Holds Its 1st IM Event

05.09.2008

Island Nation Holds its 1st IM Tournament:

Like its elder brother, India, the island nation of Sri Lanka is also moving towards achieving Chess excellence by holding its 1st ever IM Tournament.

Read the full report by my friend, Luxman Wijesuriya who is the brain behind propelling Chess following in Sri Lanka

Indian Youth Retains U-16 Olympaid Title:

August 2008 would be remembered in the Indian Chess for a long, long time as the Indian Youth Team, buoyed by the success of Abhijeet Gupta, Harika and Parimarjan Negi, went to retain the U-16 Olympiad, which concluded at Turkey. Continue the momentum at World Youth!!

Atit Holds Bharat Patel:

Atit Gupta (1726) continued his good performance by holding higher rated Bharat Patel (1964) in round 3 of Maharashtra State Selection trials. He is now on 2/3. You can view the games by clicking here:

Maha State Selection - Atit Gupta Off to a Good Start!

Atit Gupta (1726) is off to a good start in the Maharashtra State Selection trials, which commenced today here at the Andheri Sports Complex. In the 1st round, Atit was paired against his ICS colleague, Kavya Shah. He won this game very easily. In the 2nd round, Atit held Gaurav Konde (2015) to a creditable draw to finish day 1 with a score of 1.5/2. You can view the games by clicking here:

Botswana - Creating Chess Cult in Africa !!

I had a great tour of Botswana for the FIDE CACDEC Trainers' seminar. Botswana, a small nation bordering South Africa, is creating a sort of Chess Cult!! Click here (pdf file) for the virtual tour of Botswana!!

Great Results at DSO !!

ICS trainees, Atit Gupta, Aastha Bafna, Abhishek Shetty, Sulagna Das and Kunal Modi secured top places in the Borivali ward DSO tournament, which concluded on 22/08/08 and have qualified for the Inter-Ward tournaments.

While Atit expectedly won the event with 6/6, Aastha Bafna & Sulagna Das secured 2nd positon and 3rd position in girl's section respectively.

Meanwhile, Abhishek Shetty and Kavya Shah won the Malad ward in the Boys and Girls' section respectively by winning 5/5.

ICS congratulates all the winners!!

Triple Treat for India on the I-Day !!

Chess in on the very top in India's sporting success as the Indian team completed a rare triple on the Independence Day in the World Junior Chess Championship 2008 at Turkey!!

GM Abhjijeet Gupta and GM Parimarjan Negi secured 1st and 2nd place respectively in the Juniors while IM Harika won the Junior Girls with a round to spare!!

Coach Vishal Sareen with Abhijeet Gupta (left) and FM Sahaj Grover (right)

GM Parimarjan Negi - 2nd Place

Aastha & Atit Wins Ryan's Inter-Zonal !!

Aastha Bafna & Atit Gupta won the Girls and Boys' section of Ryan Group of School's Inter-Zonal Chess Tournament with a perfect score!! Both have qualified to represent Ryan in all the Inter-School and District Events.Congratulations.

Romil Shah Jointly Leads at the Entrants!

11-year old Romil Shah of Don Bosco High is jointly leading at the BCA's Entrants Divisional Chess Tournament in progress at Zandu Pharma Canteen with a score of 3/3 in this 9-round event.

07.07.2008

Inter-Class Tournament of the Month:

The Inter-Class tournament of had ICS attracted 48 trainees, which turned out to be a great success! The prize distribution ceremony is scheduled on 20th July 2008. You can view the full results and some fanstastic photographs by clicking on the link below:

A-group, B-group, C-group, Photographs

Results of Level-1 & 2 Exams:

Click here to see the results of Elementary Chess Course's Level-1/2 exams. More details to follow.

ICS Offers Online Chess Training :

FI Praful Zaveri Offers personalised Online Chess Lessons. Click here for more details

Kunal Modi gets an ELO Rating of 1722:

13-year old trainee, Kunal Modi of Thakur Vidyamandir, Kandivali is the latest trainee to enter the FIDE Rating List. In the just released July 2008 list, Kunal enters with a rating of 1722 ELO points. Congrats!!

Meanwhile, 12-year old Harshal Mehta has also completed his rating requirements with a score of 2.5/9 in the recently concluded Sangli and Nagpur rating tournaments. He would be figuring in the October 2008 rating list.

14-year Priya Lotlikar, who has a score of 1/6 at the Under-13 Aditya Birla Nationals, 1/3 at Sangli Women's Rating was expected to enter the July 2008 list however, her name has not appeared. We are following the matter.

Reviews of Mastermind Chess - I:

The reviews have started pouring in from the readers, chess players and chess trainers!! Read the reviews!

07.06.2008

Mastermind Chess - I Released:

My first book - “The Chess Course” (ISBN: 978-81-7525-816-7) has completed the journey of eight wonderful & exhilarating years and, I am overwhelmed with the response this book has received during these years. Read More

Jay Narale Completes Partial Requirement:

11-year old, Jay Narale from St.Joseph High School, Malad has completed the partial rating requirement in the ongoing MIO at Goregaon Sports Club.

Jay has played 4 rated players and has scored 1 point. The notable fact is that this is Jay's 1st rating event!

We wish that Jay would earn his ratings soon.

Kunal Modi & Priya Lotlikar Completes Rating:

14-year old Kunal Modi & Priya Lotlikar have completed their rating requirements at the ongoing Mumbai Mayor's International Chess Tournament. Atit and Priya are set to enter to the July 08 rating list with a rating of 1700+ Congrats!!

I trust both of you would really work hard to increase your ratings.

Mumbai Open: Wishing Luck for ICS Trainees!!

I wish the following trainees, who would be participating in the Mayor's 1st Mumbai International Tournament to be held at Goregaon Sports Club from 10th to 20th May 2008, "'Best of Luck". I trust that would be able to gain a very good exposure of chess at the highest level !!

Atit Gupta (Rated), Kunal Modi (partial rating), Priya Lotlikar (partial rating), Rahul Petkar, Hitesh Patel, Sayandeep Biswas, Dhruv Shah, Rahul Lamge, Abhishek Shetty, Parmi Shah, Jay Narale, Abhishek Shetty & Kavya Shah.

Be Brave! Victory is Yours!!

Goa State Coach Honoured with Laptop!!:

I hope the following inputs by the Goa State Chess Association, will inspire many a people associated with promotion of Chess to recognize the efforts of their trainers!! Keep the momentum going!!

Results of ICS Level-1 Exams:

The level-1 Diploma Exam, which was held for the trainees of ICS on 13 April 2008, was taken more seriously by the students than I had anticipated! They were well prepared in all the segments of syllabus and handled it quite well. I hope the knowledge consolidated by them would be translated into success in the chess tournaments. Click here to see the full results:

31.03.2008

Atit Gupta Gets his FIDE Rating!!:

Its' party time at ICS as Atit Gupta gets his FIDE Rating of 1733 ELO Points over 10 games in the just released April 2008 FIDE Rating List!!

Congratulations Atit !!

He had completed his rating performance at the Suraj International Rating Tournament at Sangli in December 2007.

14-year old Atit, a VIII standard student of St.Lawrence High School, Borivali (West) had started his coaching stint in November 2006. He has played in just 3 FIDE Rating tournaments and 1 State Under-13 Tournament! Being a hard working student, Atit has got the potential to break 2000 ELO in a year's time. He has now set his sight in the ensuing Mumbai International Open in May 2008, wherein he wants to perform creditably against higher rated & titled players!

Meanwhile, world champion Anand continued his domination at the top with 2803 ELO Ratings. Incidentally, he is the only player with 2800+ Rating in the April 2008 list!

Living Life on 64 Squares!!:

The game of Chess has received a great boost by the way of a very good article 'Living Life on 64 Squares' by Mr. Kunaal Majgaonkar on our Chess School in the Times of India's 'Bombay Times' (Andheri Plus) dated 25/03/08. Thank you, Kunaal !!

To read the full article, click here:

Atanu Lahiri & Anuruddha Share the 1st Prize:

The Sri Lankan National Chess Champion GC Anurudda shared first place at the Sri Lanka Open Chess Championship with Indian International Master Atanu Lahiri, beating RS Kalugampitiya in the last round. (Unquote: My friends, Prasad Deshmukh & Nitin Warde had also participated in this event) Read the full report from my friend, Mr.Wijesuriya

Pranav, Harshil & Harshit Secures Prizes:

Sri Sri Ravishankar Vidyamandir is the only School in Borivli, which has introduced Chess as one of the optional subjects for their students. They are conducting regular Inter-Class events for their trainees. And, in one of the winter tournaments held on 22/02/08, the following trainees of ICS won the prizes:

1.Pranav Jain IV Standard (3rd Prize), 2. Harshit Shiroya - III Standard (2nd Prize), Harshil Shiroya - III Standard (2nd Prize).

Congratulations!!

Kunal Modi Triumphs:

State Rapid for Juniors at Nashik:

Anand Wins Linares/Morelia Again!!: :

Anand continued his winning ways by defending the super GM Linares/Morelia Chess Tournament with a score of 8.5/14. With this win, Anand has back-to-back wins in this event, which is considered as the world's strongest event. The win will push Anand once again to the top in the April 2008 FIDE Rating list, which he had to share with Kramnik in January 2008 list. Anand can expect future challenge from the young Magnus Carlsen, who came a clear second.

BCA Rapid Chess Tournament : :

Bombay Chess Association is conducting a 03-day Rapid Chess Tournament at Zandu Canteen from 12-14 March 2008 with the time-control of 25 minutes per player. The tournament has a very good prize fund of Rs. 15000/- with a first prize of Rs.3000/-. In all, there are 15 prizes inclusive of U-10, U-14, U-16, Best Women & Veteran player. You can rush in your entries to Honorary Secretary, P.B. Bhilare at Zandu Canteen between 6 to 9 pm. The entry fee is Rs.300/-