FROM THE CEO

Hi everyone, greetings from Himachal Pradesh! :) I am at a place called Shri Badrika Ashram. It was founded by Om Swami - a monk and a spiritual teacher/Guru. Om Swami is someone who has played a huge role in GM Vidit Gujrathi's life and I have observed their beautiful relationship from close quarters. Hence, when Vidit suggested me if I would like to join him to the ashram on 14th of March, I readily agreed. Besides, I had been travelling very heavily for the last 6 months right from the Chess Olympiad 2024.

Vidit won the Freestyle Chess qualifiers in the Shri Badrika Ashram, and booked his spot for Paris! | Photo: Sagar Shah

My schedule looked something like this:

Chess Olympiad 2024 - Budapest (9-24 September)
Travel to Hague to meet Anish Giri and family
Global Chess League 2024 - London (2-13 October)
WR Chess 2024 - London (14-19 October)
Big Chess Diwali Camp - Mumbai (21st to 27th October)
Meghalaya Chess in Schools Program - Shillong (29th October to 1st December)
Chennai Grandmasters - Chennai (3-11th November)
Tata Steel Chess India - Kolkata (13-17th November)
Freestyle Chess Carlsen vs Caruana - Singapore (18th to 22nd November)
World Championship Match - commentary from Mumbai (25th Nov to 12th December)
Travel to Singapore to meet Gukesh (13th -16th December)
World Rapid and Blitz, New York (20th Dec - 2nd Jan 2025)
Gukesh WACA event in Bangalore, Group e4 event in Chennai, Ambit event in Mumbai (4th Jan to 13th Jan)
Tata Steel Chess 2025, Wijk Aan Zee (16th Jan to 3rd Feb)
Freestyle Chess, Weissenhaus, Germany 2025 (5th Feb to 15th Feb)
Prague Masters 2025, Prague (25th Feb to 9th March)

Phew! Just to recollect these events, got me a bit tired here! :) And if you add the period of applying and getting visas for some places in between, you realize that I had hardly gotten any time since the beginning of September. That's like 6.5 months! :) I agree this is a life that many would die for! And I feel very blessed. But sometimes your body and mind deserves a break! :)

Happy faces from the Prague Masters - commentating with Harshit, having Aravindh as the guest! | Photo: Prajwal Bhat

Shri Badrika Ashram in Himachal was going to be that place for me. Today is 22nd of March 2025 and its been 8 days since I arrived here and I have been having the time of my life! I wake up in the morning on time, sleep on time! Eat simple food, sometimes I even skip all the meals in the day, I go to the river for 8 hours or so and read the books written by Om Swami. His life story and work ethic is truly inspiring. If you were wondering how it all looks check these couple of pictures!

The Ashram from my room! | Photo: Sagar Shah

The Ashram is truly placed in an incredible location. I have learnt a lot in this period. I have got the time to think about some very important things in my life and how I approach them - from my relationship to ChessBase India, my relationship with Amruta and much more. I would highly recommend taking some time off for yourself every year for a few days to reflect upon the important questions of life for yourself and see if you are moving in the direction where you wanted to.

The Giri river where I spent over 50 hours on this trip! | Photo: Sagar Shah

I want to share one thing that impacted me quite a lot during these 8 days - My thoughts. I wanted to understand where is it that my thoughts are coming from? What is the reason I am getting the thoughts that I am getting. Can I have any sort of control on them, or am I doomed forever! If you observe closely, thoughts become the starting point for all your emotions often and also your actions. So if you could truly have mastery over your thoughts, you could very well have mastery over life! :) 

At some point I realized that although my thoughts looked random, there was a pattern in there. My thoughts really resonated with things that were important in my life. If ChessBase India means a lot to me I would keep getting thoughts related to it, in different forms - Oh that work is pending, Oh I have to respond to that person, Oh what is my X team member doing right now and so on.

I realized one way is that I think a bit about the root of my thoughts deeper and thoughts will rearrange themselves. Like if I get a bit detached from X then the intensity of thoughts about X will stop. But then it is quite possible that I will get attached to Y and then thoughts related to it will begin! :) It's like a tap that is broken! It is always overflowing. And so I tried to implement this technique called Mindfulness!

Building Mindfulness

I am sure many of you are aware of it and I was also aware of the same. But this time when I read about this in Om Swami's book Mind full to Mindful I was quite motivated to execute it. So the theory of mindfulness says that you give your complete attention to whatever it is that you are doing. If you are eating you just eat. Chew every morsel carefully, feel the texture of the food, the taste and so on. When you are walking you just put all your attention to it. And when you are working you also work 100% with focus! With mindfulness becoming a part of my life, I started spending 2-3 hours at night also working on my laptop creating some videos or replying back to people. I even created a new series on YouTube - Sagar vs the Grandmasters! :)

I saw everything slow down for me. My brain slowing down. Actually it was not the brain slowing down, it was just that the number of thoughts were reducing. I felt more vital. Smiling came more naturally to me because I was no longer just physically present somewhere but also mentally. Sometimes I see some of the spiritual saints with always these huge smiles and vibrant faces! I kind of know now, how they do it! :) They are in the present. They are mindful.

If you haven't tried mindfulness, try it out. As a chess player it can be extremely helpful. Because after all what is it that we need when playing a good game of chess? 100% focus, right? But, imagine that when at the board you want your mind to focus but rest of the time you are filled with thousands of thoughts. To suddenly make this switch - isn't it expecting too much from your mind? Why not make an attempt to bring the same focus that you want on the chess board, to the rest of your life! :) Me being able to write this experience for the newsletter is also because of mindfulness! It had been close to six months since I had written something. Today I just sat and wrote this all down in 30 mins! 

My time at Om Swami's Shri Badrika Ashram has been very inspiring and transformative for me. I want to thank Vidit for bringing me here with him. I am glad I will get to spend more time with him in Paris (as he won the Freestyle Qualifiers!) I also want to thank Om Swami who has written these beautiful books on different subjects, sharing his deep insights.

Thank you Viditbhai! | Photo: Sagar Shah

As I end this note, I want to gift 10 people who read this newsletter 1 book by Om Swami. He has written many of them and you can find them all here! So write to me which one do you want from this list and why, and I will choose 10 people and send it across to them. Let Mindfulness prevail! :) - Sagar Shah

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HEADLINE OF THE WEEK

Nicosia GP Round 6: Harika bounces back, Anna Muzychuk maintains her sole lead

GM Anna Muzychuk (UKR) drew with GM Jiner Zhu (CHN) to maintain her sole lead after the sixth round of FIDE Nicosia GP 2025. GM Harika Dronavalli bounced back with a victory over GM Nana Dzagnidze (GEO), after suffering a loss in the previous round. Harika could have probably finished things much earlier if she had seized her opportunity in the middlegame. In a relatively balanced rook vs bishop and knight with two pawns each endgame, the Georgian trapped her rook which cost her the full point. IM Divya Deshmukh forced a perpetual check to draw with IM Stavroula Tsolakidou (GRE). Round 7 starts today from 3 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Photo: FIDE / Mark Livshitz

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BORIS SPASSKY'S BEST GAMES!

CHUCKY10

Think Like Ivanchuk is a celebration of a true chess genius. This book is a collection of Vasyl Ivanchuk's best games, a chess biography and a highly entertaining training manual all in one! Vasyl Ivanchuk, a super-grandmaster from Ukraine, was born in 1969 and was the best player in the world in the 1990s behind World Champion Garry Kasparov. He has won the Olympiad, the super-tournaments in Linares and Wijk aan Zee, and many, many other events. He is an incredibly versatile player and has employed almost every possible opening variation known to chess.

Grandmaster Viktor Moskalenko has known his compatriot since childhood, has been his second and sparring partner, and understands his style like no other. Moskalenko has selected Ivanchuk's most fascinating games against world champions and top grandmasters and has derived more than 500 training positions from them. The exercises are fun, engaging, and presented in a way that any chess player can understand.

Today, we have a very special offer on Think like Ivanchuk Practical Chess Exercises: Tactics, Strategy, Endgames By Viktor Moskalenko! Just use the coupon code "CHUCKY10" to avail a 10% discount on this wonderful book. This offer is valid till 29th March 2025 - so hurry up, get your copy now, and enter Planet Ivanchuk!

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LATEST NEWS OF THE WEEK

Aravindh Chithambaram named as one of the wild cards for Grand Chess Tour 2025: Superbet Rapid and Blitz

GM Aravindh Chithambaram has been named as one of the wild cards for the upcoming Grand Chess Tour: Superbet Rapid and Blitz 2025. The newly crowned Prague International Chess Festival 2025 Masters champion joins GM Vladimir Fedoseev (SLO), former World Champion - GM Veselin Topalov (BUL), GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU) and GM David Gavrilescu (ROU) at Superbet Rapid and Blitz 2025. The remaining participants of the event are: GM Alireza Firouzja (FRA), GM Levon Aronian (USA), GM R Praggnanandhaa, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (POL) and GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA). Once again, the World no.5, Arjun Erigaisi's name is surprisingly missing from the list. Superbet Rapid and Blitz will take place from 24th April to 1st May 2025. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

 

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Harikrishna’s journey from becoming a Junior Champion to training the World Champions

We see the player, but we rarely see the person. Behind the celebration of ratings and titles, there is a story of quiet moments. Pentala Harikrishna's story is one of those. Top 10 player, Olympiad winner, Team Championships, second of current World Champions, Hari’s resume is so impressive! Recently, Sagar Shah sat down with him in Prague to discover the person behind a great player. Hari opened up about his achievements, wife Nadezda, challenges, downfalls and many more. This raw, honest conversation will reveal the human side of a grandmaster.

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USA and England 1 are World Senior Team 2025 Open 50+ and 65+ Champions

USA and Italy scored an unbeaten 15/18 each at World Senior Team Championship 2025 Open 50+ Category. USA became champion due to better tie-break scores, Italy had to be content with the second place. Kazakhstan scored sole 14/18 to finish third. In the Open 65+ Category, England 1 scored sole 16/18, remained undefeated to become the champion. They finished two points ahead of the rest. Lasker Schachstiftung GK (GER) scored 14/18 to secure second position. Saxonia (GER) scored 13/18, edged past Israel on tie-breaks to finish third. The top three prizes were €1500, €1000 and €700 in each of the Open categories. Photo: Official site

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Sagar Shah vs the Grandmasters | Pawel Czarnota (2577) | Episode 01

The start of a new series on ChessBase India - it's called Sagar Shah vs the Grandmasters. IM Sagar Shah takes you through some of his memorable clashes against grandmasters in the world of chess. The games are analyzed in depth and will help you grasp the depth of how to play against a grandmaster. Our hope is that someday when you face a GM, this series will give you the confidence that you need to play against these strong opponents. You can also work on this material on ChessRanga here!

Watch the full video

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