Top 5 from 2019: Chess Stories

As we start 2020, it’s time to look back at some of the highlights of 2019. First up is the top 5 chess stories of the year (according to me); 5. Grand Chess Tour comes to Africa Grand Chess Tour expanded with several new stops this year, and maybe the biggest new development was the

Chess update: Grand Chess Tour & FIDE Grand PriX

A couple of things have happened since the last chess update, with a winner emerging from both Superbet Rapid & Blitz in Romania and a winner of the Hamburg FIDE Grand Prix. Let’s take a look at the upcoming events and how these results have affected the overall standings (concerning Grand Chess Tour and the

Wesley So becomes the first Fischer Chess World Champion, and other chess news

The final of the inaugural world championship in Fischer Random Chess concluded on Saturday, crowning Wesley So as the first official world champion in this chess discipline with a crushing victory of Magnus Carlsen. As usual Carlsen entered the final being the favourite, but was basically outplayed by the strong American and only raking up

World Fischer Random Chess Championship: Carlsen vs So

After three days of semifinals and a rest day, today (Thursday) we move on to the main event of this year’s first official Fischer Random Chess Championship. Three days of games to decide who will become the first Fischer champion (and who ends up grabbing the bronze). The format stays the same, but we got

World Fischer Random Chess Championship starts Sunday 27.

Last year Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura played an unofficial fischer random chess world championship match in Norway. It was broadcasted on the state broadcaster NRK and was a surprising success. With the new leadership of FIDE and teaming up with Chess.com this year FIDE started an official world championship cycle to crown another chess

Race to the FIDE Candidates 2020

In the autumn of 2020 Magnus Carlsen is again set to defend his World Chess Champion title, but for we get there, the chess world will need to find the next challengers. As usual this is done via a candidates tournament with 8 players playing in a double round robin tournament with the winner getting

FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss 10-21 October

Today the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss begins on Isle of Man. This event has usually been a well attended Open chess tournament but this year things have changed. FIDE have teamed up with Chess.com and together with the Isle of Man hosts created a Grand Swiss tournament for the top rated players (and some wildcards).

GCT in Croatia, does Norway Chess need fixing and Carlsen staging a chess coup?

A lot is happening in the chess world so here’s a update of some of the biggest headlines. Fixing Norway Chess? As expected Carlsen won this year’s edition of Altibox Norway Chess, and as expected the new format with armageddon in the case of ties in the classic games was controversial en sparked a lot

Norway Chess 2019 (and a small chess update)

On Monday June 3 the Altibox Norway Chess starts with the blitz tournament so I though I do a small preview of who’s playing and what’s in store the coming weeks, but first a small update on other chess news Grand Prix series Moscow tournament finishes with Nepomniachtchi winning The first of 4 Grand Prix

FIDE Grand Prix Moscow – round 1

The first leg of this candidates cycle FIDE Grand Prix kicked off on Friday. Today (Sunday) the first tiebreaks begin, but out of 8 mini-matches just 2 return for the tiebreak day. Here’s a short recap of what has happened so far and my initial impressions. Round 1 – game 1 One big question going