The second day of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals in South Africa marked the start of the knockout phase, with four quarterfinal matches played under a 30+15 time control. Two encounters were settled in the first pair of games, while the other two required blitz tiebreaks. Magnus Carlsen, Javokhir Sindarov, Vincent Keymer and Levon […]
Monthly Archives: December 2025
Diego Flores claimed his eighth national title at the 2025 Argentine Championship, matching Miguel Najdorf’s long-standing record in the event’s centenary edition. The 12-player round-robin, held at Buenos Aires City Hall, saw Flores finish unbeaten with 8½/11, securing victory after a final-round draw against Federico Pérez Ponsa. Strong performances by Diego Valerga, Leonardo Tristán and […]
The King’s Indian Defence has been one of the most dynamic and popular responses to 1.d4 for decades. Legends such as Garry Kasparov, Bobby Fischer, and Hikaru Nakamura have employed it at the highest level – and it continues to fascinate today, as it offers Black not only solidity but also rich attacking and counterattacking […]
Now that we have examined all the individual trees in this game between Viktor Kortschnoj and Anatoly Karpov from 1978, what is our view of the forest? Move after move, Kortschnoj made optimal choices, never lessening the tension. Most decisive endings are won after a gross blunder, but it took 46 years to find where […]
The opening stage of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals in South Africa consisted of a single round-robin tournament with a 10+5 time control. Although no players were eliminated, the results were of clear importance: they decide the quarterfinal pairings. Javokhir Sindarov, fresh from his victory at the FIDE World Cup, was the top scorer, […]
In recent days, an unusual face has been circulating on sports pages and social media: Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha, a boy from the Sagar district in Madhya Pradesh, India, has been registered as a FIDE-rated chess player at just three years, seven months and 13 days old — making him the youngest player in history to […]
The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam South Africa serves as the concluding event of this year’s Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. It brings together the qualifying players for a four-day programme that follows a structured format, beginning with a round-robin stage and culminating in placement matches that rank all participants from first to eighth place. Magnus […]
Grandmaster Dorian Rogozenco highlights how ChessBase 26’s Opening Report quickly reveals statistical trends and practical insights for specific opening lines, demonstrating it with a rare surprise weapon for Black in the French Advance, with the moves f6 and also f5, and showing that Black’s results, especially at lower levels, look promising enough to merit investigation. […]
After four rounds of the President Cup in Tashkent, three players share the lead on 3/4: Nihal Sarin, Shamsiddin Vokhidov and Mukhiddin Madaminov. Their identical paths, combined with a striking trend of all decisive games favouring white, have given the event a notably symmetrical start. With Shant Sargsyan and Bardiya Daneshvar close behind and key […]
FIDE has announced the passing of Casto Abundo, Executive Director of the Asian Chess Federation, whose five decades of service left a lasting mark on the global chess community. A respected arbiter and organiser, he played key roles in major international events and helped strengthen the institutional framework for chess across Asia. His leadership, dedication […]