Latest news with #ChessbaseIndia
NDTV
4 days ago
- Sport
- NDTV
D Gukesh Breaks Silence On Magnus Carlsen's Post-Loss Outburst: "Also Banged..."
Following his stunning victory over former world number one Magnus Carlsen in the round six of Norway Chess, India's World Champion chess star D Gukesh spoke on how he was not pleased with his win and had a sporting reaction to Carlsen's post-match outburst, which saw him bang the table aggressively and send down some pieces falling, reported Gukesh pulled off a stunning victory against the former world number one in Round 6 of the ongoing Norway Chess 2025 tournament, turning the game around from a losing position on Sunday. This marked Gukesh's first-ever classical win over the Norwegian grandmaster. The 19-year-old also became the second Indian player to beat Carlsen in the competition's history after Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. That moment when World Champion @DGukesh won his game against World no.1 Magnus Carlsen! Video: @adityasurroy21 / ChessBase India #chess #chessbaseindia #norwaychess #gukesh — ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) June 1, 2025 Speaking after the match as quoted by Gukesh said about his win, "I mean, [it was] not the way I wanted it to be, but okay, I will take it." He also took Carlsen's outburst in a sporting manner, understanding the frustration he must have faced, saying, "I have also banged a lot of tables in my career." In the video now posted on the official X handle of Norway Chess, just after the win was sealed by Gukesh, Carlsen let out his emotions by banging the table, sending some pieces falling on the board and down on the floor too. While he did not forget to shake Gukesh's hand and give him a pat on his back as the Indian star tried collecting himself emotionally after a stunning win, Carlsen's frustration with his performance was visible. Gukesh was still in shock after his win and the way he pulled it off from behind, saying, "99 out of 100 times I would lose," but it was just a lucky day." Carlsen had an upper hand over Gukesh for most of the time in the match, but in the end, he couldn't control his nerves, and the teenager turned the tables around and went on to win the match. With this win, D Gukesh jumped to third spot in the Norway Chess 2025 points table with 8.5 points, and now he is just one point behind Carlsen and American Fabiano Caruana. Earlier on May 27, the marquee clash of Round One at Norway Chess 2025 lived up to expectations as Carlsen launched a classic king hunt to defeat reigning World Champion D Gukesh in a thrilling encounter. This was their first classical match since Gukesh won the world title, and it also marked Carlsen's return to individual classical chess after nearly a year. Reacting to the upset victory, Gukesh's coach, Grandmaster Vishnu Prasanna, praised the teenager's resilience and fighting spirit."We have to give a lot of credit to Gukesh for his stubbornness and his resourcefulness because I think he was aware that he was dead lost for so long, yet he kept kicking, he kept kicking, and the time went lower, the more chances he had to actually do something with the position. I do not think he intended to win that, but I am sure he is happy," Vishnu Prasanna said.
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Business Standard
4 days ago
- Sport
- Business Standard
Gukesh gets even with Carlsen, beats the world No 1 in Norway Chess
Reigning world champion D Gukesh finally got his revenge on Magnus Carlsen, defeating the No.1 player for the first time in a classical game in Round 6 of Norway Chess here on Sunday. Watch the full clip. — Anish Giri (@anishgiri) June 1, 2025 Days after Carlsen, the five-time world champion, inflicted a huge blow to Gukesh's chances in the opening round of the tournament, the world champion, who turned 19 only a few days back, struck back, catching the Norwegian by surprise just when it seemed he was on the verge of losing the game to earn three points. That moment when World Champion @DGukesh won his game against World no.1 Magnus Carlsen! Video: @adityasurroy21 / ChessBase India #chess #chessbaseindia #norwaychess #gukesh — ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) June 1, 2025 The Indian jumped to third spot with 8.5 points and now trails the world No.1 Gukesh and American Fabiano Caruana by just one point. It was a huge comeback for Gukesh, who had looked out of sorts in the opening game against Carlsen. He seemed to be losing Sunday's game as well before he turned things around to win his maiden Classical chess contest in 62 moves and over four hours of nerve-wracking chess. While Gukesh refused to speak to the media, his Polish coach Grzegorz Gajewski said the win will give the teenager a huge pump going deeper into the tournament and in future battles with the Norwegian. It (win) just gives a huge pump of confidence (to Gukesh) because once you've done it, you know you can do it again. And that's the plan, said Gajewski. When asked if other players from India will suddenly feel confident about themselves beating Carlsen following Gukesh's feat, he said, It certainly does. And for the tournament (Norway Chess) that's going ahead, it gives him (Gukesh) a bump. Hopefully we can break another unbreakable margin. Perfect, said the Pole.
Indian Express
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Can chess force broadcasters to change the channel and put it on TV?
Over the past week, a new chess event with a twist, called Checkmate: USA vs India, found a place in the calendar. The tournament will see young gunslingers like D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and Divya Deshmukh lead Team India against the might of Team USA featuring – among others – old warhorses Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. The goal, organisers told The Indian Express, was to drag chess from the 'fringe of mainstream sports' and onto television screens, a challenge that has proved daunting for even legacy chess events with decades of history. Chess is one of those unique sports that gets most of its eyeballs from streaming platforms or YouTube. Forays on television, not counting highlights packages, have been rare even in a country with a booming chess culture like India. It's a problem so vexing that even FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky admitted in a recent interview on Chessbase India: 'Maybe, we don't have a product that is ready to be televised in a way that millions of people can follow it.' Sutovsky, who was part of the team that convinced NBC Sports to broadcast the 2021 World Chess Championship, said that getting a major network interested in buying broadcast rights for chess tournaments from start to finish was the 'most complex thing' in the sport. But what is it about chess that makes it ideal for streaming but not for television? The obvious answer is that in classical chess, a game might end in a draw in three hours or stretch on for seven, leaving a TV network unsure about what window it grants for a tournament. In this aspect, it seems to share its woes with tennis, where a match can end in two quick sets or stretch on for five at a Grand Slam event. Events like the Global Chess League (GCL) — which anyway had games in the shorter rapid time control format — made two alterations to their chess broadcast last season to make it more TV-friendly. It did away with increments last season, which is something that will also be attempted when chess is played at the Esports World Cup later this year. It meant that all match-ups between two franchises were restricted to a 46-minute window of actual playing time. Another tweak the GCL made in Season 2 to make the league more of a television product was changing the look of the broadcast itself: they eliminated the ubiquitous tiny box that exists on every broadcast with the commentators visible at all times. The space freed up was used for more graphics to simplify the sport for the casual follower. GCL, in fact, got a dedicated team to work on graphics to turn it into a made-for-TV product. 'Chess has grown big because of streaming, and streamers have done a fantastic job in bringing it to audiences. But if it has to be brought on TV, the product has to be looked at again,' GCL CEO Sameer Pathak tells The Indian Express. He calls GCL a 'made-for-TV, fan-first attempt at chess', adding that the current chess broadcasts are actually made for streaming. 'TV requires a better quality production — the cameras, the lighting — than what it is there currently,' he says. 'On streaming, you get hardcore chess fans. But on television, you have the opportunity to catch the attention of casual fans, somebody who is there to watch an IPL game or a football match. If you have to compete with the NBA, the English Premier League or IPL, your production cannot be subpar. If you want to be on TV, you will be compared to other leagues and other sports.' GCL had success in getting the sport shown live on television abroad in its two seasons. In India, JioCinema streamed the action live on its app. Now, the organisers are hopeful that they will solve the TV puzzle in India too. Example to emulate Kjell Madland, the founder and tournament director of the Norway Chess tournament, has probably had the most success in turning it into a television sport. Norway, after all, has had TV 2 Sport broadcasting every move at the competition live for over a decade now. Last year, the event was streamed live on the Sony LIV app in India with the broadcaster's sports channels showing highlights packages. This year, Norway Chess will have a television presence — as highlight packages or full livestream — in 20 countries this year. Ask Madland what tournaments need to do to get chess on TV, and he says: 'Chess is a complex game that requires those who broadcast it to do so in a way that even those without chess knowledge can understand what's happening. To make it a TV sport, the format needs to be more TV-friendly in terms of timing, and broadcasts must be designed to create excitement for the audience.' Ask Madland why Norwegian broadcasters have put live chess on TV, while other countries have not, and he points to the Scandinavian nation's most famous chess product: Magnus Carlsen. He says that Norway Chess started roughly around the same time that Carlsen became world champion. 'In the beginning, the main reason for television broadcasts in Norway was likely the great interest in Magnus Carlsen rather than chess itself,' Madland says. 'But now, there is a strong interest in chess itself.' With the likes of Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Erigaisi and Divya leading India's charge on the battlefield of 64 squares, there is hope that they could also emulate Carlsen and push chess onto TV as a sport soon.
Indian Express
01-05-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Divya Deshmukh to lead India vs the USA in unique chess battle
World champion Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and Divya Deshmukh will lead India against Team USA in a never-before-seen team chess event that pits two of the most successful nations in the sphere of 64 squares. The exhibition event — christened Checkmate: USA vs India — will be held on October 4 this year in front of a live audience of 2,500 fans at the Esports Stadium Arlington in Texas. While there are national events in chess like the Olympiad, this event will have intricacies woven into it that make it stand out from those events. Sample this, the event will have an esports feel to it since the venue for it — the Esports Stadium Arlington — is a 1,00,000 square feet arena that can accommodate up to 2,500 fans and will have 90-foot-tall LED displays showing broadcast of the games. This will be a radical shift from the usual chess halls, where a library-like silence usually prevails. Then, before the game, the national anthems of both countries will be played out at the arena, which is also unusual in chess. To give the American team a 'home advantage' — another unheard of concept in chess — all five players representing the USA will play with white pieces while the organizers have said they are exploring the prospect of playing a similar contest in India later on. Unlike the Olympiad, the five games in the India vs USA clash will not take place simultaneously, they will be held one after the other. Each game will be played with a time control of 10 minutes per player. If this game gets drawn, there will be an 'overtime game' where each player will have five minutes. If this too ends in a draw, there will be a 'shootout game' where each player has one minute per player. This continues until a winner emerges. The organisers said that the clash will see current world no 3 Gukesh, who last year became the youngest world champion in the history of the sport, facing off against world no 2 Hikaru Nakamura while world no 4 Erigaisi duels world no 5 Fabiano Caruana. In the women's section, Divya Deshmukh will take on Carissa Yip while in the U15 section, Ethan Vaz will take on Tanitoluwa Adewumi. On the final board of the five-board contest, popular streamer Levy Rozman (an international master popularly known as Gotham Chess, representing the USA) will take on Chessbase India's Sagar Shah (also an international master). 'This is the kind of event that elevates chess to the next level. India has become one of the most exciting forces in global chess, and I'm thrilled to take them on in front of a live crowd here in the US. We want to show the world that America is home to some of the best players in the game—and that chess can be as thrilling and competitive as any major sport,' Hikaru Nakamura, current world no 2 was quoted as saying by the organisers in a statement. Checkmate Strategic Ventures, the organizers of the event, said that they were looking to 'reshape the future of chess entertainment' and 'reimagine chess for a new era' by making it into more of a spectacle. Currently, the biggest struggle the sport faces is getting screen time on television networks. 'Chess is a global language, spoken by over 600 million players—and yet, its full power has never truly been unleashed on the world's biggest screens. After witnessing the sold-out crowds and millions of (online) viewers at the FIDE Candidates 2024, it became clear: chess is no longer just a game. It's a spectacle waiting for its stage,' Salim Belcadi of Checkmate Strategic Ventures, lead organizer of the series, said in a statement. The cheapest tickets for the event, which went on sale on Thursday, were for $120 (approximately Rs 10,000) with VIP tickets available for $350 (approximately Rs 35,000).
