Chess · Worth knowing

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Vandan Alankar Sawai, an Indian chess player who reached 1900 Elo at age twelve, has experienced significant rating fluctuations while competing internationally. After achieving a peak rating of 2243 in early 2025, he dropped 300 points but recovered through structured training with coaches including GM Oleksander Goloshchapov and IM Kushager Krishnater, who identified his primary weakness as insufficient calculation depth. Following third-place finishes at tournaments in Dubai and Sharjah, Sawai's breakthrough came at the National U-17 Championship 2025-26 where he executed a successful piece sacrifice based on deep calculation, leading to a dramatic opponent blunder. By July-August 2026, he gained nearly 230 rating points across four tournaments, approaching a published rating of 2338.

Club Ajedrez Solvay leads the Spanish Primera División team championship with a perfect 6/6 match points after three rounds in Linares, with Granada SIDN-Cívica-Nazaríes-Trevenque, Gros Xake Taldea, and Andreu Paterna tied for second at 4/6. The eight-team round-robin tournament features six-board matches played at the Hotel RL Aníbal from August 27 to September 2, with the top two teams earning promotion to the División de Honor for 2027. Solvay's key contributors include Vasyl Ivanchuk (2634), Abhimanyu Puranik (2629), and S L Narayanan (2576), with four rounds remaining and only a two-point margin separating the leader from the chasing pack.