Bears, Bullet, Brilliant: This Month At Chess.com

Chess used to be a purely methodical game, but times have changed. As this past month showed, the fastest chess games now attract just as much attention as the slowest. See who won our recent bullet events, which other events are upcoming, this month's bots and new features, and more as we begin the second half of 2026.

Here's everything this update covers: 

• Events
• Product & Engineering
• Community
• Content
• Chessable
• ChessKid
• Fair Play
• Support

Events

• It was a bullet chess month. GM Nihal Sarin winning the Bullet Chess Championship with a 15-game winning streak against GM Alireza Firouzja. GM Andy Woodward, meanwhile, won the Hyperbullet Community Championship. against previously reigning two-time champion GM Andrew Tang.
• The Naroditsky Memorial, which gathered several top players and content creators to honor GM Daniel Naroditsky, was won by GM Javokhir Sindarov in the main event, while IM John Bartholomew won the creators' tournament with a perfect 9/9!
• Watch out for the next Community Championship, Spell Chess on July 15-17.
• The Esports World Cup (EWC) begins August 11, and will now be held in Paris. Get your tickets today! GM Benjamin Bok is the latest qualifier after winning India Rising on July 4 and will joining GMs Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, and other stars at the EWC.
• The first half of the Freestyle Friday Championship concluded, with GM Pranav Venkatesh locking up a spot in the 2027 FIDE Freestyle World Championship.

Product & Engineering

• Advanced stats are here, including the ability to see all your brilliant moves in one place! How many have you had?
• Take a trip through the woods and beat some bots along the way.  

If you are in tech and would like to join our team, we're hiring!

Community

• Grandmasters, the docuseries featuring Carlsen and others as they played the Freestyle Grand Slam throughout 2025, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 6.
• Be on the lookout for new celebrity bots this month!

Content

• The latest Guess the Elo installment features India's top rated player, GM Arjun Erigaisi!

• If you're looking for articles, check out our feature with the operators of the Columbia Chess Club, and read Dan Lucas about Danya's childhood journal that became a book.

Chessable & Courses

• If you are looking for aggressive ways to meet multiple opening after playing 1.e4 as White, look no further than IM David Vigorito's The Gold Standard 1.e4.
• And if you need attacking tips for any situation, GM Sam Shankland's Attacking Chess Workbook be just what you're looking for.

ChessKid

• If you're in London on July 12, check out Chess Fest London at noon at Trafalgar Square—no ticket needed!   
• In 2026, ChessKid has introduced new bots, upgraded the iOS and Android apps, added customization options... and the year is only half over! 
• Whichever ChessKid app you use, take a whirl at our Secret Agent Summer Camp.

Fair Play

Fair Play Stats for June 2026

• 1,043,289 reports created
• 148,623 Fair Play closures (including 18 titled players: 3 IM, 5 NM, 6 FM, 2 CM, 1 WNM, 1 WCM)
• 1,400+ mute actions
• 1,300+ accounts muted
• 266,000+ abuse closures
• 46,097,527 rating points refunded

Support

Support Stats for June 2026

• Median Time to First Human Response: 47 hours
• Users Helped: 1,047,473
• Messages Sent: 174,307
• Average Quality by Member Rating: 93.1%
• Total Ratings: 3,823

Thank you for being part of the world's largest chess community. Let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comments below!

Missed any updates? Open the menu below for all past editions of the Community Update, or find last month's here.