Editor Speaks
The first issue of this year's AIWCF Bulletin is in your hands.
2024 was a big year for Indian Chess. Indian Men’s and Women’s teams won the Chess Olympiad. The crowning glory was D. Gukesh’s victory over Ding Liren to become the second Indian World Classical Chess Champion. The icing on the cake was that Pranav V. won the World junior championship.
CCM Mohan Turaga, our Games Editor, has provided the Games section with his now familiar trademark style of providing annotation to CC games with illustration of plans from GM-level games.
KVL Narayana has provided an interesting Chess Quiz which I am sure readers will enjoy solving without referring to AI or search engines.
CCM Sailesh Chandra has provided another article in his Think like an Engine series. This will help all newcomers who have joined AIWCF in recent years to improve their chess skills while using Chess Engines.
The Editor’s Chess Tidbits covers the historic Gukesh-Ding Liren match and a few other crucial tournaments from last year, and early this year. In the first major event of the year the Tata Masters, R. Praggnanandhaa beat Gukesh in a thrilling tie-breaker at Wijk an Zee.
In a major upset, Vincent Keymer won the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, aka Chess960 or Fischer Random Chess event in Weissenhaus. In a standout performance, the 20-year-old German defeated the World #1 Carlsen and World #2 Caruana enroute to winning the event, reminiscent of Ivanchuk’s sparkling performances in 1991 Linares and 2013 Candidates.
AIWCF 1521 championship (Engine allowed) is in the crucial stage for deciding the pole positions. Alok Saxena, Aniruddha Dutta Gupta and Tanmay Srinath lead the table with 8 points, with Tanmay Srinath having an extra game in hand. His ongoing game versus Rakesh Agrawal might decide the winner.
A new Thematic tournament on Jacob Murey Gambit (Engine allowed) has been commenced. It involves a temporary knight sacrifice introduced by Jacob Murey versus World #3 Timman in 1993. All top players are requested to experiment with this rare but sound opening choice.
AIWCF is forming a 20-member team to participate in the 2nd ICCF World Team Cup expected to start in Aug 2025.
We lost two of the most iconic Grandmasters of last century, World champion Boris Spassky and Robert Hübner this year. Their achievements are covered in the Obituary column.
As usual, looking forward to your comments, suggestions and feedback for improvement on AIWCF WhatsApp 
group or by Email.
Sincerely Yours,
Anil Anand
Bulletin Editor