A memorable year
Sportstar presented the Sportstar Aces Awards 2025 last week. Divya Deshmukh received the award for sportswoman of the year (non-Olympic) thanks to victories at the World Junior Girls Championship 2024 and at the Chess Olympiad. The Indian Men and Women’s teams received the National Team of the Year award for winning historic gold medals at the Olympiad tournaments in Budapest.
Vidit Gujrathi and Srinath Narayanan were present to receive the men’s award. Divya, Vantika Agrawal and Abhijit Kunte were present to receive the women’s category award.
Master Class Vol. 12: Viswanathan Anand
This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors how to successfully organise your games strategically, and how to keep your opponent permanently under pressure.
Legends Vishy Anand and Pravin Thipsay also attended this event and presented awards.
Divya Deshmukh gave this response when she was asked what would be the name of the channel if she starts streaming on popular social channels:
I think it would be something related to Queen’s Gambit, I am not very sure. But maybe something like the Indian Beth.
Vidit Gujrathi had this to say when he was asked how chess became a team event when it is an individual sport at its core:
The format is simple. It’s best four of each country playing the best four. This tournament (the Olympiad), where we won the gold, was played by I think more than 180 countries. So it was the best of the best players there.
Vidit and the captain of the team, Srinath Narayanan, were present to accept the award.
Abhijit Kunte, captain of the Indian women’s team, said:
First of all, I would like to thank The Hindu group for honouring the Indian men and women’s teams with this award. What they have achieved is [becoming] the second country in the world in the hundred years of Chess Olympiad to win men and women’s titles together with more than a hundred countries participating. So I think it speaks for itself. The first country was USSR, which is not there anymore.
Abhijit, Divya and Vantika Agrawal were present to receive the award.
Sportstar Aces Awards 2025
Endgame essentials you need to know Vol.1 & Vol 2
In this video course, GM Surya Ganguly joins IM Sagar Shah and drawing from his colossal experience, shares some uncommon endgame wisdom. The material mostly features positions with rook against rook and a pawn, and starts by covering the fundamentals.