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He didn´t like school but has a masters degree in computer science,  his nickname is "Captain Mag-Pan" (according to IM Danny Rensch) and he happens to be a fan of Ghandi... Meet Grandmaster Magesh Chandran Panchanathan from Madurai in India, ...

White to move. Can you find the best continuation for White?b3rrk1/3qnpb1/5n1p/p2p1pQ1/Pp1B3N/1B4N1/1P4PP/R4R1K w - - 0 1Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar

Dear friends,As the Governor of the Region of Central Macedonia, it is a great pleasure for me to welcome all participants to the "FIDE Grand Prix" 2013 in Thessaloniki.We are happy and honored to be the hosts of such an exceptional sporting event and to welcome the top chess players from around the world in our region. Just as in the case of other numerous sporting and entertainment events held in Thessaloniki and in Central Macedonia, we will do our best to make the "FIDE Grand Prix" 2013 one of the best organized and exciting chess events in the world. I am certain that the chess fans of Thessaloniki and Central Macedonia will attend and support with enthusiasm the "FIDE Grand Prix". I am also confident that the organizers and the citizens of the City of Thessaloniki will welcome the participants and will provide any assistance needed so that the "FIDE Grand Prix" will be held under the best possible conditions. It is my wish that through this sports meeting, the participants will not only experience magnificent chess competitions but also have the opportunity to meet and appreciate in person both the unique historical and the modern character of Thessaloniki and Central Macedonia.I would like to congratulate the "FIDE Grand Prix" organizers for choosing the City of Thessaloniki for hosting this tournament. I strongly believe that this occasion will mark the beginning of a fruitful and fertile collaboration with FIDE in forthcoming events. To all the participants, I salute your commitment and I wish you all the best in the games.Enjoy your stay in the City of Thessaloniki. The Governor of the Region of Central Macedonia Apostolos Tzitzikostashttp://thessaloniki2013.fide.comChess Daily News from Susan Polgar

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013Hi everyone, In an exciting finish to the Norway Chess Super Tournament 2013, Sergey Karjakin drew his last-round game with Veselin Topalov to win the tournament this Saturday. The Russian grandmaster was the only player to finish on 6/9. Magnus Carlsen drew his black game with Levon Aronian to finish shared second along with Hikaru Nakamura (who beat Jon Ludvig Hammer). Bringing back painful memories from the Wijk aan Zee event in January this year, Wang Hao defeated Vishy Anand in the last round. More updates to follow. Final Standings1 Karjakin,S 62 Carlsen,M 5.53 Nakamura,H 5.54 Svidler,P 55 Aronian,L 56 Anand,V 57 Wang Hao 4.58 Topalov,V 49 Radjabov,T 310 Hammer,J 1.5From Alexandra Kosteniuk'swww.chessblog.comAlso see her personal blog atwww.chessqueen.comDon't miss Chess Queen™YouTube Channel

The last round of the first Norway Chess Tournament finished after more than five hours of chess. Sergey Karjakin finally drew his game against Veselin Topalov to claim overall victory at the event. Magnus Carlsen signed an uneventful draw with Levon Aronian, Viswanathan Anand lost with black against Wang Hao and Hikaru Nakamura got shared second place thanks to his win over Jon Ludvig Hammer.Replay games with computer analysis / ParticipantsSergey Karjakin fulfilled the expectations after his great start and finished the event on sole first place after drawing Veselin Topalov with the white pieces today. This game was the longest one of the round and was not a peaceful GM draw by no means. Topalov finished on -1 after drawing eight games and losing against Anand in the third round.The game was a Sicilian Najdorf. Topalov chose to leave his king in the center protected by the f6-f7 doubled-pawns formation. With a completely blocked position in the center and kingside, Topalov started looking for chances on the queenside. Karjakin defended correctly and fenced-off the danger. The players made a repetition on move 50 in a position where the Russian is a pawn up.The two best rated players in the world faced each other today. Magnus Carlsen needed a win over Levon Aronian to get, at least, a chance to catch Karjakin if he drew with Topalov. However, to look for a win with the black pieces against Aronian is not the easiest thing in the world. The Armenian played solidly and exchanged a lot of pieces out of the opening to get a draw on 30 moves.The overall result of the event for Carlsen can be evaluated as slightly positive. He recovered from a slow start and finished on shared second place. However, the Norwegian always shoots for first, and especially in the first edition of this super-tournament, in his home soil. On the other hand, Levon Aronian finished on +1, which might also not be enough for his ambitions. He comes from winning the Alekhine Memorial and tiredness might be a big factor at this point.Viswanathan Anand got his fifth decisive result in the event. This time, he lost against Wang Hao with the black pieces. The world champion also arrived with a chance to catch the leader but ended up falling against the creative play of the talented Chinese. Anand finished a point behind the leader on 5/9 and Wang Hao left the bottom side of the table to finish with an even score.The game was a Symmetrical English where white played fearlessly, going for a line with g4 and e4 included. The dynamic position that arose fit the style of the Chinese, who handled the complications better than his opponent. Anand sacrificed a queen for a rook and bishop and tried to defend an inferior position. However, Wang’s passed pawn on the queenside was the decisive factor that forced the Indian to resign on move 38.Hikaru Nakamura finished yet another event on second place after defeating Jon Ludvig Hammer with black. The American repeated his +2 performance from the Gand Prix in Zug and, thanks to these two results, is now on sixth place in the live ratings list. He will be shooting for first place at the upcoming stage of the Grand Prix in Thessaloniki, which stars on Tuesday.Teimour Radjabov and Peter Svidler finished the tournament with a draw. The Russian played the Gruefeld with black and faced a not-very-ambitious setup by white. The players signed the peace treaty after 31 moves.Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013Hi everyone, One of the greatest advantages of being a chess professional is to be able to travel across the world and visit places one might not during a regular holiday. Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk is as passionate about her travel plans as her chess. She's finally decided to share her unique and special travelling experiences with her fans and has accepted an offer from the Russian web-site – TravelTipz.ru to write regular reviews about the hotels where she stays. "I stay, the restaurants which I discover and different activities I take part in during my trips. I will share my reviews on my site, Twitter and Facebook. My first review is about the huge hotel Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, coming up soon! I hope you will like it and it may be useful to you!""Flying from one country to another, I make at least 10 trans-Atlantic flights a year. Most of my trips are associated with chess tournaments and in recent times I have noticed that the hotels, replaced one by one, pass by me as a string of identical images. That is why I am so glad to accept the proposal by traveltipz.ru to talk about my trips. I am sure now I will be more careful to consider those hotels where I stay, and then to share the observations on the pages of this site. Map of my travels usually reflects the chess events' calendar and this calendar does not always coincide with the usual tourist routes. But, nevertheless, I can assure you that the world through the eyes of a chess traveller is not just black and white, but a collage of striking and unusual experiences."Have fun travelling with the 12th Women's World Chess Champion on her chess adventures!From Alexandra Kosteniuk'swww.chessblog.comAlso see her personal blog atwww.chessqueen.comDon't miss Chess Queen™YouTube Channel

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Sunday Grind: May 5, 2013 Cinco de Mayo falling on a Sunday inevitably meant it would be a working holiday for me. Each Saturday night, I feel like I did when I was nine and beyond excited to go to Space Camp the next day, the unfortunate effect of which is that I sometimes have trouble sleeping the night before. Fortunately, though, it also means that I wake up earlier, which enables me to fit more PokerStars huge-guarantee tournaments into my schedule! Since Collin sleeps a bit later than me on Sunday, he started bringing breakfast to me while I play. Ever since my infamous scorched eggs, I've taken to making scrambled eggs the night before. Collin heats up the eggs for me on Sunday morning, and if I am running good on the breakfast front, he adds some smoked salmon and brie. As fancy as that sounds, I assure you that shoveling eggs into my mouth while 25-tabling is anything but glamorous! This, however, is glamorous! Another great thing about starting earlier is that the 180-mans (one of my favorite game formats) load super quickly. My first final table of the day occurred at the smallest prizepool tournament that I routinely grind: an $8 180-man. Things weren't looking the best for me, as I had an ante-adjusted stack of just over two big blinds with eight left. Fortunately, I got it in good and held this hand: RSS readers click through to see replay Unfortunately, I busted shortly afterward, when my unexploitable shove got correctly called by a much better hand. While I always play to win, laddering up to fourth was certainly better than eighth, but my tiny fourth wasn't doing much to offset my buy-ins so far. By the fifth time I noticed getting two-outered on the river, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was running bad. One good thing about busting with A-A to T-T all-in pre-flop in the money of the WSOP Main Event last year was that no beat stings as much as that one did, and so I reminded myself just to keep loading tourneys and the results would follow. One of my best tricks for staying positive when a session isn't going my way is to switch up my grind music. Clearly, I'm no scientist, but I feel that occasionally switching to music to which I'm not accustomed activates my brain in a different way that helps me find more creative lines. This week, that meant listening to the Beatles. I've yet to know anyone that can listen to "Can't Buy Me Love" without smiling. Pretty soon, I was bouncing along to the beat. Better yet, I had a sweat brewing (and I don't mean the kind you get from spastic dancing in front of the computer). I was pretty deep in the $8 Rebuy, a tournament that I chopped three-handed about a month ago (also on a Sunday) for about $7.2K. When I'm running deep in an MTT, figuring out how many tournaments to keep loading is an art form I've yet to perfect. On the one hand, if I make a super deep run, I want to have all my focus on the high-dollar decisions I will face. On the other hand, if I have a disappointing bust late in the tournament, having a bunch of other tables to focus on offers hope. Because the $8.80 $30K Guaranteed is a 2x-turbo, the action goes quickly, so I decided to keep loading tables normally as my stack dwindled to 10 big blinds on the last few tables. Then, I got the best suckout I've had in a long time! Not just a double-up but a triple-up! RSS readers click through to see replay Then, my stack continued to grow with 18 left: RSS readers click through to see replay Remember that "art" of figuring out when to stop registering for more tournaments when deep in a large-field MTT that I mentioned? I'm as good at it as a preschooler trying to use finger paints to make a perfect copy of the Mona Lisa. I did stop registering for more tournaments once I'd reached the final table, but I still had over 20 games going. Usually this is a low number for me mid-session, but it had the potential to be a bit high while fulfilling the goal of perfect awareness of eve

1. Karjakin 6.02. Carlsen 5.53. Nakamura 5.54. Anand 5.05. Svidler 4.56. Aronian 4.57. Wang Hao 4.58. Topalov 4.09. Radjabov 3.010. Hammer 1.5Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013Hi everyone, Latest chess news via Fide: WGM Irene Kharisma Sukandar from Indonesia took a clear first place in Alexander The Great Open by concluding the event with 6,0/7 points. Despite challenging the field with 2 GMs and 6 IMs, her result was rather convincing as she started with four consecutive wins and remained in sole lead until the end of the tournament.Sukandar also added 25 elo points and raised her rating to 2395, only five points shy from the title of International Master. She already has six(!) IM norms.IM Mert Erdogdu had a chance to overtake Sukandar in the direct last round clash but the game was drawn and the Turkish player finished clear second with 5,5/7 points. Full standings here.IM Boris Itkis took the trophy for the third place thanks to the superior tie-break.Top placed women are WIM Sandra Djukic, WIM Ljilja Drljevic (both from Serbia) and IM Masha Klinova (Israel). Irene Kharisma Sukandar commented that she didn’t expect to win this tournament and just hoped to play a couple of good games, “I didn’t come here with the focus on the Open, I am here to accompany my sister who is playing in the World School Championship. But I did pretty well and I hope that my sister can follow in the footsteps.”“After this tournament I will compete in six-player double round robin in Keckemet, Hungary. It will be a tough challenge as there are four Grandmaster participating. I just hope I can get another five elo points in that tournament,” (smiling).From Alexandra Kosteniuk'swww.chessblog.comAlso see her personal blog atwww.chessqueen.comDon't miss Chess Queen™YouTube Channel