So and Liang Lead Open at 2/2, Bottom Seeds Top the Women
Round two of the 2026 U.S. Championships thinned the leaders in both sections. In the Open, GMs Wesley So and Awonder Liang both won again and sit on 2/2, down…
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Caruana Chases a Fifth Straight US Title, and Reshevsky's Record
Fabiano Caruana has won the US Championship four years running, from 2022 to 2025. As he defends the title in Saint Louis, a fifth straight win would equal a…
Dubov Needs 100 Wins, a Club Player Needs Just Half a Point
The most interesting thing about this match is the scoring, not the players. Josh Smith, a 49-year-old Arizona businessman rated in the 1800s by US Chess, is…
Adams Plays 3.Bc4 Against the Sicilian, and Nobody Laughs
In round six of the Samarkand Olympiad, Michael Adams beat Etienne Bacrot in a game that began 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4. That is a setup theoreticians long…
Adly Power Play Rapid Draws 381 as Cairo Hosts Africa's Biggest Field
September's African calendar had 216 tracked events. Several of the most notable were classical tournaments in South Africa, East Africa and Tunisia, while the…
How Chess Fights Cheating, Online and Over the Board
Engines now play far better than any human, and they run on a phone. That makes cheating a problem with no final fix. Online platforms and FIDE both work on it…
Gloeckler, 14, Leads Fagernes on 6/7 With Three Rounds Left
Fourteen-year-old German IM Christian Gloeckler beat Austrian IM Lukas Dotzer in round seven of the Fagernes Autumn Tournament and moved to 6/7, keeping sole…
Chess960 Explained: Why Freestyle Shuffles the Pieces
Chess960 keeps every rule of chess except the starting position. The pieces on the back rank are shuffled before each game, and the pawns stay where they are.…
Svane's Second Olympiad Gold and Germany's Board-Prize History
Frederik Svane's second Olympiad gold puts him alongside a single predecessor: before him, only Dr Robert Hübner had won two individual golds for Germany. His…
Tokayev Receives Turlov, Who Pitches Kazakh Chess as a Model
Kazakhstan's head of state has formally welcomed the new head of world chess. According to a FIDE press release carried by ChessBase, President Kassym-Jomart…
Artemiev Beats Nakamura in the Final Round of Titled Tuesday
Hikaru Nakamura came to Titled Tuesday on October 6 as the first player to reach 3500 in Chess.com blitz, and he left it with a record of 3503 but without the…
Cascavel, Araguari and Guayaquil Anchor South America's September
Most of South America's 640 tracked events in September were rapid (514, against 123 classical). This look back covers the bigger classical events, and Brazil…
Germany's Bronze Traces Back to Bernd Vökler's Chess Princes
Germany's bronze medal at the Samarkand Olympiad is its first for a men's team in 26 years. A feature in the Thüringer Allgemeine, republished by ChessBase,…
How Swiss Tournaments Pair Players and Break Ties
Most open chess tournaments, from local weekenders to the Chess Olympiad, use the Swiss system. It was first used in Zürich in 1895 and lets a big field…
Larsen's Monte Carlo 1968 Win Over Gheorghiu, Move by Move
Bent Larsen is remembered for 1.b3 and for opening ideas his contemporaries thought odd. A ChessBase Master Class lesson on his strategy argues that this is…
Six Players Share the Lead After Two Rounds in Fagernes
Two rounds into the Fagernes International Autumn Tournament, six players share first place with perfect scores. The GM Swiss is running from 3 to 11 October…
Classical, Rapid, Blitz: How Chess Time Controls Work
Every serious chess game is played against a clock, and the amount of time on it decides what kind of chess it is. FIDE splits games into three categories,…
How a Chess Player Becomes a Grandmaster
Chess titles are awarded by FIDE for life. Once a player earns one, it stays, even if their rating later drops. The highest is grandmaster, first awarded to 27…
Evren Ucok's $5 Million Bet on Young Chess Prodigies
Chess patrons usually fund a tournament or a federation. Turkish entrepreneur Evren Ucok has taken a different route. According to a ChessBase feature by FM…
Titled Field Heads to Monastir as the Sahel Festival Eyes Sousse 2027
Fresh from the Olympiad, a group of titled players is heading to Tunisia for the Sahel Chess Festival, which runs October 24 to November 1, 2026 in the resort…
Speelman Hunts Samarkand's Miniatures, 40 Games in 25 Moves
Every Olympiad produces a few thousand games, and the ones that get remembered are usually the long, grinding fights. In his latest Agony column for ChessBase,…
Toronto's 165-Player Rapid Tops North America's September
The largest tournament we tracked in North America in September was a Toronto Chess Centre rapid on Sept. 27, the CYCC & OCC event at Stephen Lewis Secondary…
What a Chess Rating Actually Measures
A chess rating is a prediction, not a score. It estimates how a player will do against another rated player, and it moves after every rated game depending on…
Nakamura Wins a Fourth Straight Bullet Brawl With a Score of 155
GM Hikaru Nakamura claimed the $400 first prize at Bullet Brawl for the fourth week in a row, finishing the two-hour arena on 155 points. The win also gives…
Bluebaum Wins the Freestyle Friday Opener on 9 Points
GM Matthias Bluebaum opened the new Freestyle Friday season on October 2 by winning the tournament outright with nine points. Three players followed on 8.5/11:…
Chennai's CM Trophy Draws 1,935 Players, Asia's Biggest in September
One-day rapid events in Tamil Nadu produced the largest fields in Asia in September. CHENNAI District - CM TROPHY 2026 - School Boys topped the list with 1,935…
Jon Speelman at 70: The Candidates Run Behind a Quiet Career
Grandmaster Jonathan Speelman turns 70 on 2 October 2026. ChessBase marks the birthday with a career review of a player who reached the Candidates semifinals,…
How a Player Earns a Shot at the World Chess Title
The world champion doesn't pick a challenger. The challenger has to come through a two-year qualifying cycle run by FIDE, ending at the Candidates Tournament,…
Caruana Heads a 12-Player U.S. Championship Field in Saint Louis
The Saint Louis Chess Club has announced the fields for the 2026 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Chess Championship. Each event has 12 players, competing…
FIDE Assembly Backs Chess960 Ratings and a Qatar-Georgia 2030 Pick
The FIDE General Assembly met on 26-27 September in Samarkand, alongside the 46th Olympiad and the FIDE Congress. FIDE's summary of the main decisions covers a…
Sindarov Within Two Points of Caruana After Samarkand
The first FIDE list since the Samarkand Olympiad, reviewed by ChessBase, reshuffles the middle of the top ten while leaving the very top untouched. Magnus…
Craiova's 303-Player Rapid Tops Europe's September Fields
Of the 770 tournaments tracked across Europe in September, the largest was the Craiova Grand Prix Rapid 2026, with 303 players registered. It ran September 12…
Kasparov Reportedly Warned He Was a Target of Russian-Linked Plot
Garry Kasparov was told by U.S. authorities this summer that he was the target of a plot to kill him, and was placed under special protection, according to a…
Judit Polgar Drops a Game to Pietro's Community in Budapest
Judit Polgar's annual festival in Budapest has a habit of being comfortable for the host, so this year's result stands out. At the 12th Global Chess Festival,…
Timur Turlov on Chess as a Business: Sponsors, IDs, Olympics
In an interview with American Chess Magazine, conducted by video link in early August before the vote and republished by ChessBase, Timur Turlov described…
Bodhana Sivanandan, 11, Becomes Youngest WGM in History
England put its youngest player on top board at the Women's Olympiad in Samarkand, and Bodhana Sivanandan, aged 11, finished with 8/11 and the third norm she…
Wesley So Starts 7/7 and Wins Titled Tuesday Outright
GM Wesley So won Titled Tuesday on September 29, starting 7/7 and finishing on 9.5 points. It was his first victory in the weekly event this year. The finish…
Detained Twice on a Stalker's False Claims: Hanna Sayce's Story
Melbourne chess streamer Hanna Sayce has spoken about a stalking case that led to her being detained in Qatar, and again when she tried to enter Iceland, after…
Nakamura Wins Bullet Brawl Again, This Time by 25 Points
GM Hikaru Nakamura won Bullet Brawl for the third consecutive week on September 26, finishing with 172 points, 25 clear of the field. It was his 68th Bullet…
The Anti-Motivator and the Silent Killer: Inside Uzbekistan's Gold-Medal Team
After the closing ceremony in Samarkand, Uzbekistan's five gold medalists sat down with ChessBase India's Sagar Shah, and the resulting interview is less a…
Madaminov's Unbeaten 5.5/7 Seals Uzbekistan's Second Gold
Uzbekistan won the Open section of the 2026 Chess Olympiad on home soil in Samarkand, beating Ukraine 2.5-1.5 in the final round to claim the country's second…
Uzbekistan Crowned as Samarkand Olympiad Closes in Fireworks
Two weeks of chess in Samarkand ended the way only a Central Asian host nation could close it: with medals, national anthems, opera, and finally fireworks and…
FIDE Hands Out Its First Excellence Awards in Samarkand
Chess has always ranked its players down to the decimal point, but it has never had a proper night out to thank everyone else who keeps the sport running. That…
Timur Turlov Elected FIDE President, Ending a 30-Year Russian Run
Chess has a new president, and the vote wasn't close in the end even though it took two rounds to get there. Timur Turlov was elected the eighth President of…
Uzbekistan's Lead Holds as Ding Liren Blunders in Round 10
The penultimate round in Samarkand did what penultimate rounds are supposed to do: it separated genuine medal contenders from teams just hanging on. Uzbekistan…
Carlsen Edges Nakamura on Tiebreaks in 3+0 Thursday
They aren't playing in the ongoing Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, but that didn't stop GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Hikaru Nakamura from showing up for the debut…
ChessMom Doubles Up as Samarkand Sets a New Record
The 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand has already made history for its sheer scale, with a confirmed 205 open teams and 189 women's teams once Angola finally…
Uzbekistan Retakes the Lead as So Stuns Sindarov
A day earlier, Germany had ended Uzbekistan's perfect 7/7 start and looked ready to make a real run at gold. Round nine flipped the script entirely. Uzbekistan…
Carrillo Wins Second Term Atop FIDE Americas, 29-12
Continental elections rarely make headlines outside the federations that vote in them, but this one carried a clear margin. On September 24, during the 46th…
Germany Ends Uzbekistan's 7/7 Run in Samarkand
Uzbekistan had won every match so far at the 46th Chess Olympiad, and it took a full family effort to stop them. Germany beat the tournament leaders 2.5-1.5 in…