The inaugural Naroditsky Memorial Rapid & Blitz is taking place in Charlotte from 3 to 5 July, combining open tournaments with elite showcase events across a three-day festival. Friday is devoted to a seven-round rapid competition, divided into Masters and Challengers sections, with a time control of 10+5. Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Javokhir Sindarov […]
At the end of last year, the famous chess café Simpson’s-in-the-Strand reopened, and its new operator, Jeremy King, together with his friend Jason King, intends to preserve its chess tradition. To this end, a “chess menu” was recently put together. Luke McShane gave a blindfold chess exhibition – the first at Simpson’s for 100 years.
Alireza Firouzja increased his lead at the Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia in Zagreb after scoring two wins and a draw for the second day in a row. He now has 10/12 points, 3 more than Vincent Keymer, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Gukesh Dommaraju and Bogdan-Daniel Deac. Firouzja won both his games with black on Thursday, while […]
After nine hard-fought rounds, the Kasparov Chess Foundation Friendship Festival 2026 Open came to a thrilling conclusion. Chinese grandmaster Xu Xiangyu captured the title with an outstanding performance, prevailing in one of the strongest international open tournaments ever organized on Slovenian soil. Final report, with photos provided by Jernej Borovinšek.
Alireza Firouzja took the sole lead after the first day of the Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia in Zagreb, scoring two wins and a draw in the opening three rapid rounds. His victories over Ivan Saric and Bogdan-Daniel Deac were not straightforward, while a third-round draw against Anish Giri left him on 5/6. Four players […]
Bodhana Sivanandan took on the virtual version of José Raúl Capablanca in Fritz 21 at Master Candidate strength and impressed with her calm, confident decision-making throughout the game. Despite facing one of history’s greatest positional players, she consistently found strong plans, converted her advantage into a favourable endgame, and secured a convincing victory. The post-game […]
Magnus Carlsen may have lost a significant number of rating points at Norway Chess, but he remains the undisputed world number one. World Champion Gukesh continues to lead the junior rankings, though only by a narrow margin. In the girls’ rankings, Anastasiia Hnatyshyn is the new number one.
The Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia is being held at the Westin Hotel in Zagreb from 1 to 5 July. The 10-player event sees three days of rapid chess (single round-robin) followed by two days of blitz (double round-robin). A young, stellar lineup features, among others, world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, Vincent Keymer and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. […]
The 39th edition of the “Ciudad de León” Masters will take place from 3 to 5 July, with Le Quang Liem, Kirill Alekseenko, Faustino Oro and Jaime Santos in the four-player knockout. Le returns as defending champion, while Oro arrives with grandmaster-elect status and Santos once again represents the host city. The XI Open Internacional […]
The KazChess Masters Almaty has begun in Kazakhstan’s largest city, with five established international grandmasters facing five rising local players in a ten-player single round-robin. The opening round produced two decisive results, as Igor Kovalenko defeated Alexander Donchenko with a strong attacking display, while Sam Shankland converted an endgame against Aldiyar Ansat. | Photo: Official […]