There is a three way tie for first place on 1.5 points between Hans Moke Niemann, Arjun Erigaisi and Nodirbek Abdusattorov after two rounds of the Tata Steel tournament. Round 1 leader Niemann drew quickly against Matthias Bluebaum and Erigaisi drew against Thai Dai Van Nguyen but the third winner from round 1, Vincent Keymer, went down to defeat against Vladimir Fedoseev, he in turn must be very relieved to put his mortifying […]

There were three decisive games in the first round of the Tata Steel Masters, there could even have been a couple more. The first story was that the start to the tournament was delayed, climate protesters targeting Tata Steel drew attention to their heavy use of coal and the environmental damage it causes. The start of play was delayed for a couple of hours but perhaps this disruption caused early uncharacteristic blunders from […]

The 88th Tata Steel Chess tournament takes place in Wijk aan Zee Fri 16th Jan to Sun 1st Feb 2026. Players: Masters: Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, Aravindh Chithambaram, Hans Niemann, Vincent Keymer, Javokhir Sindarov, Jorden van Foreest, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Van Nguyen Thai Dai, Gukesh Dommaraju, Anish Giri, Vladimir Fedoseev, Matthias Bluebaum and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Challengers: Vasyl Ivanchuk, Marc Andria Maurizzi, Velimir Ivic, Erwin l'Ami, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Eline Roebers, Miaoyi Lu, Max Warmerdam, […]

The Tata Steel India Rapid & Blitz took place Wed 7th Jan to Mon 12th Jan 2026. Players: Viswanathan Anand, Wei Yi, Chithambaram Aravindh, Arjun Erigaisi, Hans Moke Niemann, Volodar Murzin, Gujrathi Vidit Santosh, R Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin, Wesley So, Women: Ravi Rakshitta, Carissa Yip, Deshmukh Divya, Nana Dzagnidze, Agrawal Vantika, Rameshbabu Vaishali, Kateryna Lagno, Harika Dronavalli, Stavroula Tsolakidou, Aleksandra Goryachkina. The Rapid was won by Nihal Sarin with 6.5/9, half a point […]

The World Rapid and Blitz Championships took place Fri 26th Dec to Tue 30th Dec 2025 in Doha, Qatar. Players: Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Levon Aronian, Alireza Firouzja, Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vladislav Artemiev, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Arjun Erigaisi, Jan Krzysztof Duda, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Javokhir Sindarov, Leinier Dominguez Perez, Richard Rapport, Wesley So, D Gukesh, Daniil Dubov, Anish Giri, Yangyi Yu, Alexander Grischuk, Dmitry Andreikin, Parham Maghsoodloo, Jaime Santos Latasa, Sarin Nihal, Praggnanandhaa, Teimour […]

Magnus Carlsen won the 2025 FIDE World Blitz Championship to go along with the rapid title he had already won. This was Carlsen's ninth blitz title and the fifth time he did the rapid/blitz double, along with his five World Championship matches this adds up to a total of 20 World titles won. Carlsen called the blitz title hard-earned as he had to recover several times from upsetting losses. In the women's event […]

British Chess Grandmaster Jonathan Hawkins has passed away at the far too young age of 42. Hawkins only developed into a strong player after leaving school and was self-taught. Hawkins earned the FM title in 2008, IM in 2010 and GM in 2014. He was British Champion in 2014 shared with David Howell and 2015 where he was the sole winner. In recent years Hawkins was a successful chess coach. His 2012 book […]

The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League took place Sat 13th Dec to Tuesday 23rd Dec 2025 in Mumbai. This was a very strong rapid team event and is on its third edition with previous events in Dubai and London. There were two stages, a round robin took place until the 22nd of December followed by a final day where the top two teams played off for the title and there wasalso a 3rd-4th […]

The Magistral Szmetan-Giardelli was Round Robin held in Buenos Aire 8th to 16th December 2025. Players: Aryan Tari, Ivan Cheparinov, Julio, Granda Zuniga, Alexei Shirov, Diego Flores, Sandro Mareco, Faustino Oro, Ilan Schnaider, Sergio Slipak and Tomas, Darcyl. Aryan Tari took a quick draw in the final round and won on tie-break from Ivan Cheparinov after both scored 6/9, Alexei Shirov was also very much in the running for first place going into […]