Chess.com Open, Candidates, And More For March

As the first quarter of 2026 enters its final weeks, some of the biggest tournaments in both online and over-the-board chess are happening, with the Chess.com Open starting March 14 and the Candidates Tournament, to determine the next world championship challenger, starts March 28. But there is also a lot more going on, including a special new Course.

Here's everything this update covers: 

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

Events

• GM Magnus Carlsen won the Speed Chess Championship Finals against GM Alireza Firouzja for the second straight year, giving Magnus his third straight SCC crown and fifth overall. GM Denis Lazavik defeated GM Hikaru Nakamura in the consolation match. As top-three finishers, Firouzja and Lazavik are now qualified for the Esports World Cup (Carlsen already was).
• Carlsen also won the Freestyle World Championship, defeating GM Fabiano Caruana in the finals. 
• The stakes in Freestyle Friday are higher now, as the weekly event is now part of qualification for next year's Freestyle World Championship.
• The Chess.com Global Championship has been rebranded the Chess.com Open, which begins March 14—anyone is welcome to join the Preliminary Qualifiers on March 14 and March 21. You can read all about it in our Chess.com Open announcement.
• The Candidates Tournament starts March 28! Who will earn the right to challenge GMs Gukesh Dommaraju and Ju Wenjun for the next world championships?
• The winter split of Titled Tuesday concluded with Carlsen and GM Meri Arabidze taking the top spots in the overall section and the women's section.
• The Spring 2026 season of the Collegiate Chess League is underway with a record 227 colleges and universities registered!

Product & Engineering

• Don't miss this month's Kpop bots.

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

Community

• Chess.com was once again at the MIT Sloan Conference this year, from March 3-6. 
• The vote chess game between GM Judit Polgar and the World is ongoing, and you can still jump in! (As of March 9.)
• Chess.com was at the Super Bowl for the second straight year to host BlitzChamps, a tournament for NFL players and contributors.  https://www.chess.com/news/view/will-davis-repeats-as-blitzchamps-live-champion 
• The Improvement Challenge is back for 2026! To make the most of the Chess Improvement Challenge, join the club today and check out the club forum, too! Every month, we will recognize the top improvers and share improvement stories.

Content

• We've been as active as ever on YouTube, and you can read about those videos too. Check out our interview with Polgar about Queen of Chess and more, Polgar showing off her memory,Bodhana Sivanandan's game against GothamChess, and top players trying to guess prodigies from their accomplishments.
• You might also be interested in "Hyperbullet Hot Takes" from Magnus and Hikaru on YouTube:

Chessable & Courses

This month's top new course is a GM Aman Hambleton special as he explains all the ins and outs of his favored London System.

ChessKid

• ChessKid Ambassador FM Bodhana Sivanandan continues her fabulous rise in the chess world and recently earned her FIDE master title. Congratulations—and happy 11th birthday—to Bodhana!
• Congrats to the ChessKid Youth Champions! FM Supratit Banerjee won the under-13 division of the ChessKid Youth Championships on February 22 and GM Sina Movahed took the under-16 division on March 8. Congrats also to the other finalists, Bodhana and GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus.
• Head over to ChessKid to play the brand-new Levy bot. Not today's Levy, but a younger version... much younger.

Fair Play

Fair Play Stats for February 2026

• 790,925 reports created
• 129,929 Fair Play closures (including 11 titled players: 5 FM, 3 CM, 1 GM, 1 WCM, 1 IM)
• 2,400+ mute actions
• 2,000+ accounts muted
• 252,500+ abuse closures
• 41,537,794 rating points refunded

Support

Support Stats for February 2026

• Median Time to First Human Response: 27 hours
• Users Helped: 939,463
• Users Helped By Humans: 144,516
• Average Quality by Member Rating: 94.4%
• Total Ratings: 4,108

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

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