GM Praggnanandhaa becomes 2nd youngest GM in history!!!

[rkt.india]

8 hours ago, Gollum said:

Big only in SC which is historically the worst sporting region on the planet....hell even in Afg it is behind football Almost a dead sport in SENAW, not much to talk about elsewhere. A sport run by South Asians, otherwise would be long dead. Yeah cricket is a minor sport, even more minor than rugby, badminton. Indian cricket has no outstanding achievement to talk about, even with limited competition these prima donnas have been failures for most part. Rkt bhai, cricket choro and back other sports. Whatever little was left to celebrate, Bewda-Rat have finished that also.

Cricket will never be global sport because it is more complicated, requires far more versatile skills than any other sport. 

[Gollum]

 

ESPN: With a little help from Vladimir Kramnik, India in search for next Vishy

Quote

Former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik had a pertinent query when the idea of training six young Indian Grandmasters was first broached to him: "Will I be able to pronounce their names?"

 

It was just days after he'd announced his retirement from competitive chess following the final round of Wijk Aan Zee in January this year. Close friend and ChessBase co-founder Frederic Friedel proposed Kramnik play against one of the Indian teen GMs on the chess server PlayChess if he wanted to test their strength. In characteristic dead-pan humor, Kramnik, classical world champion between 2000-2006, offered, "I hate losing in blitz." Of course he promptly agreed to the suggestion of training the kids over a 10-day camp.

 

Starting August 15, six Indian players - R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh, P Iniyan, Prithu Gupta, Raunak Sadhwani and Leon Mendonca, accompanied by ChessBase India members IM Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal have been lodged in an apartment in Chens-Sur-Leman in south eastern France, roughly 20kms away from Kramnik's home in Geneva.

 

In itself, the idea of the camp is interesting.

In July this year, at 15 years, 4 months and 10 days Prithu became India's 64th GM, 32 years after Viswanathan Anand turned its first GM. Of the total number, nine GMs fall between the ages of 10-19, all of them achieving the distinction post 2017. While chess is getting younger in India, five-time world champion Anand, pushing into his 50th year, continues to be the country's most successful player by a distance. This project of offering a small brood of teen Grandmasters the opportunity to spend time with, learn and throw questions at the Russian great is an attempt at bridging that gap and leading them on in their dream of fighting for a world title one day. In this quest, they've found a willing sponsor in Indian IT firm Microsense who're funding all expenses of the team including travel and stay.

 

"Players of the calibre of Anand are very rare in general," Kramnik, 44, tells ESPN, "Few can manage to be like him in the whole world, let alone in the country. Yes, India has a fairly large number of GMs but it's quite a recent development. They need time to break into the higher reaches. What's exciting about working with these kids is that I see a definite potential in them to become top players...Maybe the next Anand."

 

With a rest day thrown in between, Kramnik pays the Indian prodigies a visit for six-hour sessions over nine days - getting to know each of them personally, cherrypicking ideas from Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual while the teens pore over queen and rook endgames, looking beyond moves alone and helping them understand the concept behind positions, throwing them mate in two puzzles, and even preparing specific lectures for the camp. In his lessons, the Russian Grandmaster often extrapolates lessons from his past games as reference.

 

"We learn the most from our aches," says Kramnik, "The 2008 World Championship loss to Vishy was one of my greatest lessons. It is such instances which I've worked through and that have helped me grow as a player. Without my defeat to (Alexei) Shirov in 1998, for example, I may not have won against (Garry) Kasparov two years later. The idea is to pass my learnings on to these players. Of course they have to go through their own experiences, reflect on them and build their personality to become a top player."

 

A product of the Botvnnik-Kasparov school himself, Kramnik has worked with young talented chess minds in Russia in the past and feels this generation of Indian kids is the strongest in the world right now. "What is both important and inspirational for me is that I can see that these young Indian talents really love chess. It makes you feel you're doing something so meaningful. These kids have a gift for the sport and I'd love to have more sessions with them in the future and see them hit the next rung," he says, "I came through a system myself and it's my moral duty to give back to the community. What better way than working with a bunch of chess-crazy kids."

Salute to Mr. Kailasanathan (CEO Microsense) who made this camp with the legend possible, a very generous sponsor for Indian chess. About time we had more such corporates involving themselves in non-cricket sports/games. 

Edited August 27, 2019 by Gollum

[Gollum]

Very sad read, we have a *ed up system in place. Kudos to Harsha Bhogle and Ashwin for bringing this plight to notice. 

 

Coach Ramesh is to chess what Gopichand is to badminton....in fact even more, he has adopted talented children from the slums, tribal areas and housed them, trained them for free despite knowing that they may never reach master level. The way our incompetent babus insult talented players, keep them in fear....no wonder we can never compete with the big dogs. 

 

 

Thread

 

Abhijeet Gupta isn't among top 10 Indian players, Negi is nowhere in the picture, same with Tania who is more of a commentator. Yet they received Arjuna awards almost a decade ago. I have nothing against them, will always wish Indian players well, but an analogy will be to recognize Unadkat/Kaul/Unmukt before Shami/Rohit/Pujara...does that sound fair? What is the process of selection, babus actually mocked Vidit, Adhiban, Sethuraman etc. when they filed the forms, in which other country does this happen? 

[randomGuy]

More than the awards I would like financial well being....like a crore rupees for becoming GM; 50 lacs for IM; 2 crore for super GM.

 

Registered during lockdown on chess.com

Id: Goldberg698; blitz 1254 , rapid 1326 hearing terms like semi Slav , Sicilian, king's Indian  :(...

Edited July 21, 2020 by randomGuy

[randomGuy]

@Gollumtania is one of the best ever women players... Negi also youngest GM from India? I think right approach is to not dismiss others in order to promote your favourite players.

[Gollum]

1 hour ago, randomGuy said:

@Gollumtania is one of the best ever women players... Negi also youngest GM from India? I think right approach is to not dismiss others in order to promote your favourite players.

No one can accuse me of favoritism especially when it comes to Indian sports, let us argue based on facts. I am not against Arjuna for Negi/Tania as I said in my post, I am happy that they got and want more non-cricketers to get these honours.

 

Tania is not a GM, nowhere near the Humpy/Harika class...she is clubbed along with many others. So if she got the award in 2009 players like Rout, Mary Ann Gomes, Soumya, Kulkarni etc should also have got in the last 11 years. 

 

When it comes to men, Negi is the 3rd youngest GM, top 2 are Gukesh and Praggu. Negi got the award in 2010 when he was 17 years old, can we expect 16 yo Nihal Sarin to get it next year because his achievements are already at a much higher level including scalps of top 10 players? Negi didn't win anything significant by 2010, later lost interest because of lack of progress and left chess to pursue studies. Players like Vidit, Baskaran, Sethuraman are in their late 20s and a level above Negi. Vidit Gujrathi has even won a tournament in Biel...with due respect to Gupta/Negi they haven't enjoyed similar success. Vidit is just so much better. 

 

Saying that Vidit and co. deserve Arjuna isn't favoritism, talking purely about achievements. If I say that Shami/Bumrah are better bowlers than Unadkat that isn't favoritism, similar case here. Ramesh has coached Tania as well, so he knows what he talking about. She herself retweeted, liked and agreed with him. 

 

I find it ridiculous that no chess player has been given Arjuna after 2013, when we have grown in strength. 

 

But anyway that is just one tweet of his, he has made 25 other tweets not related to this. 

Edited July 21, 2020 by Gollum

[Gollum]

1 hour ago, randomGuy said:

@Gollumtania is one of the best ever women players

Good player but not one of the best ever. Right now she is 65th ranked player, never come close to top 50 ranking in her career. 

 

One of the best of this era is Humpy who was #2 ranked player at one point and a top 3 player for most of her career. Also some big supertourney victories and been runner up in World Championship once. 

 

Even Harika isn't 'one of the best ever', a steady top 10 player who has won bronze in the last 3 world championships. 

 

I don't think Tania has ever qualified to play in a World Championship...in fact a few others like Padmini Rout and Mary Ann Gomes have qualified for these championships based on rating. 

 

I wouldn't use terms like 'one of the best ever' so loosely. Only Anand comes in that category in the history of Indian chess, among men in Asian chess (there are some ATG Chinese women players but still behind when it comes to men). 

Edited July 21, 2020 by Gollum

[randomGuy]

There aren't many women players rated high as Tania...peak rating 2450+ back in 2013....she isn't just looks, you read from various IMs and GMs rate Tania quite high....Harika is strong player, higher rated but she is younger so obviously Govt. awards take time in most cases...she will get...I hope sooner!

[Gollum]

19 minutes ago, randomGuy said:

There aren't many women players rated high as Tania...peak rating 2450+ back in 2013....she isn't just looks, you read from various IMs and GMs rate Tania quite high....Harika is strong player, higher rated but she is younger so obviously Govt. awards take time in most cases...she will get...I hope sooner!

Tania deserved it. All I am saying is that Rout, Gomes, Soumya, a few others too should get it. 

 

Among men the list is longer, they can start off with Vidit (broke into top 20 once, last year) first, followed by Baskaran, Sethuraman. Players outside top 20 don't make much money, these kind of honours mean so much for them. Someone like Sarin is already a greater player than a few of those past awardees but he can wait in the queue, besides not a great idea to reward them so much at such a young age, they might lose focus and/or get more burdened.

 

Negi had talent but stagnated at a very young age, players who were trailing him in juniors progressed to top 10 (Caruana even became challenger to Carlsen and #2) while he couldn't crack top 100. All the attention/adulation at such a tender age may have played a part. 

Edited July 21, 2020 by Gollum

[Gollum]

Ramesh is yet to receive Dronacharya award, despite creating dozens of GMs, IMs, spreading the game. Humpy's father received it just for training his daughter. Try and make sense of that. Heck even Manuel Aaron, Pravin Thipsay and Abhijit Kunte have better coaching credentials.

[randomGuy]

These days 14 yo raunak sadhwani is beating likes of caruana mamedyarov on chess.com

 

How can a 14 yo do so well!

Edited July 21, 2020 by randomGuy

[Gollum]

14 yo Indian kids you mean, our boys are super strong and in maybe 15 years time India is set to become like peak USSR. Also blitz/bullet is unpredictable especially online. In longer format stronger player mostly triumphs, dunno the specifics but Caruana is weaker in slower time controls. 

[randomGuy]

4 minutes ago, Gollum said:

14 yo Indian kids you mean, our boys are super strong and in maybe 15 years time India is set to become like peak USSR. Also blitz/bullet is unpredictable especially online. In longer format stronger player mostly triumphs, dunno the specifics but Caruana is weaker in slower time controls. 

Yes... compared to Nakamura Carlsen in blitz... caruana world no.2 in standard time control

[randomGuy]

Today drew with a 2000+ rated on chess.com...the other day, beat a 1736 rated..beat 1650, 1500s as well... inbetween lost many games....I am playing unrated games...

With white - English opening, reverse dragon

With black - Caro kann and semi Slav...

 

veryvery basic stuff... There's lots of lines to remember which I can't possibly.

[randomGuy]

[Event "SanjilBruh vs. Goldberg698"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2020-07-27"]
[White "SanjilBruh"]
[Black "Goldberg698"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2004"]
[BlackElo "1295"]
[TimeControl "blitz"]
[Termination "Game drawn by insufficient material"]
1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 c6 4. Be2 e6 5. O-O Be7 6. c4 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Be2 a6 9. a3 Bb7 10. Nc3 c5 11. dxc5 Qxd1 12. Rxd1 Bxc5 13. Ne5 O-O 14. b4 Be7 15. Bf3 Bxf3 16. Nxf3 Rd8 17. Rxd8+ Bxd8 18. h3 a5 19. bxa5 Bxa5 20. Bb2 Bxc3 21. Bxc3 h6 22. Rb1 Nd5 23. Be5 Nc6 24. Bd6 b4 25. axb4 Nc3 26. Rb3 Nb5 27. Bc5 Ra1+ 28. Kh2 Ra2 29. Kg3 g5 30. h4 f6 31. hxg5 hxg5 32. Nd4 Nbxd4 33. Bxd4 Kg7 34. Bc5 e5 35. b5 Na5 36. Rb1 Ra4 37. b6 Nb7 38. f3 Ra5 39. Bb4 Ra4 40. Bd6 Ra6 41. Bc5 Ra5 42. Bb4 Ra4 43. Be7 Kf7 44. Bc5 Ra5 45. Bb4 Ra4 46. Bc5 Nxc5 47. b7 Nxb7 48. Rxb7+ Ke6 49. Kh3 e4 50. Rb6+ Ke5 51. fxe4 Rxe4 52. Rb5+ Ke6 53. Rb6+ Kf5 54. g4+ Kg6 55. Rb3 f5 56. gxf5+ Kxf5 57. Kg3 g4 58. Rb5+ Re5 59. Rxe5+ Kxe5 60. Kxg4 Ke4 61. Kg3 Kxe3 1/2-1/2

[Gollum]

We have an ICF chess tourney thread, personally I prefer to play 3 minute games on lichess. 

Edited July 27, 2020 by Gollum

[Mariyam]

13 hours ago, randomGuy said:

Today drew with a 2000+ rated on chess.com...the other day, beat a 1736 rated..beat 1650, 1500s as well... inbetween lost many games....I am playing unrated games...

With white - English opening, reverse dragon

With black - Caro kann and semi Slav...

 

veryvery basic stuff... There's lots of lines to remember which I can't possibly.

That's quite a feat!

The problem with the chess.com website/app is that you tend to get opponents in your point range. +/- 100 points from your score. The website limits your access to stronger players. 

[randomGuy]

51 minutes ago, Mariyam said:

That's quite a feat!

The problem with the chess.com website/app is that you tend to get opponents in your point range. +/- 100 points from your score. The website limits your access to stronger players. 

Right...workaround: Play unrated games; change range setting, set it minus infinity to plus infinity... then we get to play player from 400 to occasionally a 1800-2000 rated.. it was my 1st and only game with a 2000 rated. 

[Real McCoy]

India, China, Russia and other Asian countries will be the powerhouse of chess players in the foreseeable future. I don't see much talent coming out of US and Europe as they are addicted to video games. Even outdoor sports are lacking in talent in those places

 

Edit: Former USSR countries and eastern bloc countries such as Eastern European countries will also produce players. If someone from Europe/US come along, they will be children of immigrants from the above pool. Highly unlikely that someone like Fischer, Carlsen will dominate chess

Edited July 28, 2020 by Real McCoy

[Gollum]

51 minutes ago, Real McCoy said:

Even outdoor sports are lacking in talent in those places

Whaaat? Most of the best football, tennis and other sporting talents are from Europe man, come on. Even in athletics Europeans have made great strides and someone like Dafne Schippers is beating the US and Caribbean ladies regularly now. World #2 Bajrang Punia recently lost to a teenage NCAA champ, Yianni something. These things always show in the Olympics table. 

Quote

Edit: Former USSR countries and eastern bloc countries such as Eastern European countries will also produce players. If someone from Europe/US come along, they will be children of immigrants from the above pool. Highly unlikely that someone like Fischer, Carlsen will dominate chess

USA fed (chess) has the advantage that it attracts the best players from other countries, Rex Sinquefield has deep pockets and passion for chess. Look at their top men players

Nakamura-Japan

Caruana-Italy...switched federation 3 years back

Wesley So-Philippines, switched fed 2 years back

Dominguez-switched from Cuba this year

You are right most of their other top homegrown players are children of immigrants from East Asia, Russia, India, Armenia, Poland etc. 

 

When it comes to women, it is even worse, almost all their players shifted camp from Russia and Eastern Europe, all of them learnt their trade outside USA. 

 

That is why I laugh when people praise US chess scene. Russia always number one followed by a couple of Eastern European states...countries like India, China, Vietnam, Iran may have less GMs but all are homegrown. Anybody can win Olympiads by importing finished products from elsewhere. 

Edited July 28, 2020 by Gollum