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Indias three strongest woman players are all set to make their best moves as yet another high profile online chess tournament kicks off on Saturday.

Koneru Humpy, Dronavalli Harika and R. Vaishali could face some of the biggest names in the game at the Womens Speed Chess championship, organised by FIDE and chess.com.

The second edition of the tournament features 16 players, including World No. 1 Hou Yifan of China, the Russian trio of Kateryna Lagno, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Valentina Gunina, Ukraines Anna Muzychuk and Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria.

The knockout event will have games of varying time controls, from one to five minutes. Humpy, the reigning womens World champion in rapid chess, said the format made the tournament unpredictable. Anything can happen in a knockout tournament, she told The Hindu.

Last years event was held over four legs, so you could play right through the event till the two finalists were decided, she said.

Humpy had finished runner-up in the fourth leg and seventh overall. I had played with no expectations and I wasnt too keen on playing online chess then, she said. This time, I have been preparing for the tournament by playing against the computer.

Though she is one of the eight players seeded directly for the tournament Harika and Vaishali made it after winning qualifying events she is taking nothing for granted.

It is a very strong tournament with so many fine players, she said.

I am glad that three Indians are in the fray.

Humpy will take on Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan in the opening round on Saturday. Harika will face a stronger challenge on June 16, against Kosteniuk, a former World champion. Vaishali too has a tough opponent in Chinas Lei Tingjie.

The final will be played on July 3. All games will be streamed live on YouTube.

Read the original:
Womens Speed Chess from May 12 - The Hindu

The Hempel World Cup Series - Allianz Regatta entered the second part of the competition on Wednesday 9 June as the 49er and 49erFX fleets took to the water in Medemblik, The Netherlands.

Apart from last Sunday's Medal Races, light wind has been prevalent in Medemblik throughout the event, and the first day of racing for the 32-boat 49er fleet and 16-boat 49erFX fleet was a tactical affair.

"It was a bit like playing chess on the water," commented France's Emile Amoros.

Amoros and his helm, Lucas Rual, were the grandmasters in the 49er fleet on Wednesday as they took a pair of seconds and a race win to grab the early initiative.

"It was a really good day," continued Amoros. "We were fast and it was just a pleasure to get back on the water. The conditions were really tricky.

"There were a lot of tactics out there, but we had three good starts and once you're out in front, it's always a bit easier. We were going fast today and I hope we can keep this up."

The French crew, selected to race for their nation at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, have already opened up a healthy advantage. They lead on five points and are followed by Germany's Jakob Meggendorfer and Andreas Spranger on 16-points.

The day's other race wins went to Erwan Fischer and Clment Pequin (FRA), who are fourth overall, and Bart Lambriex and Pim van Vugt (NED), who are fifth.

Tokyo-bound Annemiek Bekkering and Annette Duetz (NED) put together the perfect performance in the 49erFX, claiming all three race wins.

"It was pretty light and super unstable," explained Bekkering on the day's action. "It was never the same up or downwind, which was a lot of fun. We tried to play the shifts, look out for the pressure and it worked quite well."

"We're quite happy to sail in a light wind event after so much wind during the winter. We're doing our final preparations at home, and we have a good fleet, which is nice to prepare for the Games."

Germany's Marla Bergmann and Hanna Wille and Great Britain's Isabelle Fellows and Alice Masterman trail the Dutch pair, tied on 11 points in second and third respectively.

HOW TO FOLLOW

EVENT WEBSITEClick here for further information on Medemblik and the Hempel World Cup Series - Allianz Regatta http://www.allianzregatta.org.

ENTRIES / RESULTS / SCHEDULEClick here to view the entry list in full.

Click here for the schedule.

Results will be available here.

SOCIAL MEDIAFollow the event on World Sailing's social networks and get involved in the conversation using #Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/worldsailingofficial/Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/worldsailingofficial/Twitter - @worldsailing

PRESS RELEASESAll World Sailing international press releases throughout the duration of the Hempel World Cup Series, including the latest news and reports, are available to read here - https://allianzregatta.org/the-event/news/.

Originally posted here:
Chess on the water at Hempel World Cup Series - Allianz Regatta - International Sailing Federation

Rook and pawn endgames are the most common type of endgames. Last week, we looked at the principle of cutting off the king in a rook endgame. This week the importance of a rook on the 7th rank is illustrated.

In this weeks position, black has a pawn advantage. Even so, black is in trouble. Whites well-located rook is more threatening than blacks pawn. With this hint in mind, please try to find whites winning attack.

The white rook has the black king corralled on the 8th rank. To fully exploit this whites king enters the fray with king to e5. Blacks best reply is to advance its pawn to f4. Whites king next moves to e6 (see next diagram).

White now threatens to win blacks rook and pawn with rook to a8, check. This is because the black king must move to c7 and abandon its rook, allowing white to skewer blacks rook. Meanwhile, the black rook has no safe square along the f file.

As for the 8th rank, if the black rook moves to any other square than e8, whites rook skewers blacks rook. If the black king moves to e8, white mates with rook to a8. This leaves black opting for rook to d8. But now white moves its king to d6 (see next diagram).

White threatens to mate with rook to a8. To avoid mate black must move its king to c8. Nevertheless, whites rook checks black, skewers its rook, and then snatches blacks run away pawn.

The lesson this week is that a rook on the 7th rank is worth at least an extra pawn.

Reach Eric Morrow at ericmorrowlaw@gmail.com or (505) 327-7121.

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Chess Corner: Sitting on the 7th rank - Muskogee Daily Phoenix

Joe Burows competitive streak is a big part of the reason hes on track to start the regular season in Week 1 despite his rehab from a season-ending injury.

Its also part of what made him so appealing to the franchise in the draft and now to teammates, too.

Understandably, this competitive fire translates to off the field, where Burrow even trash talks teammates like C.J. Uzomah overchess?

The Athletics Paul Dehner Jr. shared the fun note from the veteran tight end:

The good thing I can say is we have been talking crap about chess right now. We havent played yet but he thinks hes good at chess. He probably watched Queens Gambit. I have been playing chess for longer than that. I think Ive probably got him on that. He knows I like traveling a lot and he will hit me with, So, where we going? You going somewhere and going to get another dumb tattoo? I say yes the majority of the time.

In other words, while Chad Johnson just had his first pro boxing match, maybe Burrow will land in the chess scene after his football career.

Kidding aside, its always fun to get a look at the players behind the scenes and this comment from Uzomah about the teams franchise passer doesnt come as much of a shocker.

View post:
Joe Burrow is so competitive he's trash talking teammates about...chess - Bengals Wire

Bollywood star Aamir Khan will battle former world champion Viswanathan Anand in a game of chess, an online Twitter handle dedicated to the game called Chess.com announced recently. Sharing that Aamir Khan is a big fan of the game, the forum tweeted about the moment everyone had been waiting for.

The moment you all have been waiting for! Superstar Aamir Khan, an ardent chess lover, will be playing an exhibition match against former world champion Vishy Anand! Please feel free to donate generously to make this event a success, read the complete post.

A fan also shared photos of the two celebrities in the comments section, indicating how the duo had previously met and battled in a game of chess. The admirer wrote that the match would be epic! Many other users expressed similar emotions in the comments. One wrote, Wow, this is huge! While yet another mentioned, It is great, cant wait to see them.

The event is called Checkmate Covid and is being organised to help raise fund for chess community members who have been dealing with the virus. It is said to be held on June 13 and will reportedly feature a slew of celebrities playing the game against Indian chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Aamir Khan is looking forward to the release of his epic period drama Laal Singh Chaddha. The film is a Hindi adaptation of Tom Hanks award-winning Forrest Gump. It also features Kareena Kapoor Khan and Mona Singh in pivotal roles.

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Aamir Khan to battle Viswanathan Anand in a game of chess to raise money for fighting Covid-19 - The Indian Express