€19.95
The youngest in the field
The new tour organized by the Play Magnus Group counts with the support of two legends of the royal game, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik and the strongest woman player in history Judit Polgar. Both stars had been working on projects related to chess after retiring from professional competition. Polgar organized the Judit Polgar’s Global Chess Festival while Kramnik worked with Boris Gelfand in training camps for young Indian talents.
In their latest enterprise, they are the leaders of two teams of youngsters at the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour. The first tournament of the tour, the Polgar Challenge, kicked off on Thursday, with the first 5 rounds of a 20-player single round robin event.
Polgar Challenge Day 1: Praggnanandhaa storms back to lead
15-year-old Praggnanandhaa stormed back from a 1st round loss to Volodar Murzin to win his next four games and lead after Day 1 of the Polgar Challenge, the 1st event on the $100,000 Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour. He’s joined on 4/5 by the only unbeaten players, 14-year-old Christopher Yoo and 16-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov. All play for Team Kramnik, but the team scores are tied 25:25. Lei Tingjie is the top performing female player and had a great chance to take the sole lead on 4.5/5, while Awonder Liang won with an incredible smothered mate.
Praggnanandhaa took the lead, but only after Lei Tingjie missed a chance to move to 4.5/5
The Polgar Challenge for young stars kicks off Thursday chessbase.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chessbase.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Average rating: 2520
Each team not only has a captain, but three coaches who will help the players over the course of the 5-month tour.
Surya Ganguly
6-time Indian Champion
Surya Ganguly has worked on Team Anand for World Chess Championship matches and should have some invaluable advice for his players. You can see him at the end of this short clip from the first pre-tour meeting with the players and coaches.
He’ll get to give advice to two young Indian prodigies,
Gukesh, who at the age of 12 years, 7 months and 17 days became the second youngest chess grandmaster in history (just days slower than Sergey Karjakin), and