7 Humorous Predictions For Chess In 2026

The chess world is ready for a new year and all that it will bring: prestigious tournaments, shocking blunders, rating rises and falls, unexpected winners, crushing defeats. However, what will be the major events that will capture your attention the most? So that you can be prepared for 2026, here is what you can expect:

• FIDE Will Encourage Farming
• Chess Will Be Played While Parachuting From Airplane
• World Champion Will Lose 3 Consecutive Games
• Winner Will Throw Losing Player Into Audience
• Carlsen, Nakamura Will Battle For 3rd Place While Niemann Plays For First
• Freestyle Chess Will Authorize Anal Beads
• FIDE Will Pick Duolingo As Sponsor of Candidates Tournament

FIDE Will Encourage Farming

Unlike in 2025 when it took action to prevent “farming” by elite chess players, FIDE will make a significant change of course and encourage farming in 2026. In the new year, top grandmasters will be encouraged to raise livestock, grow vegetables and fruit, and participate in environmentally friendly agricultural practices. How these efforts will affect their FIDE ratings is still unknown. 

Of course, FIDE’s restrictions on farming were directed specifically at GM Hikaru Nakamura but not exclusively as he raced to qualify for the Candidates by playing in low-rated, regional U.S. tournaments—which he called "Mickey Mouse" events—and earned easy rating points ("farming"). In September, FIDE announced the end of “farming” in a rule change. If you are curious, the FIDE announcement is here. 

Chess Will Be Played While Parachuting From Airplane

Organizers will schedule games in adventurous locations to attract more attention for their tournaments. Following the success of an underwater chess event in Cape Town, South Africa, in December 2025, players in 2026 will be challenged to play—and win—as they parachute in tandem from an airplane. In the underwater tournament, players made their moves on a small chess set placed 110 centimeters deep in a swimming pool. When a player made a move, he could come out of the water to catch his breath. Then the opponent had to dive instantly and make the next move.

Only the hardy will attempt to play while parachuting. Rules are still being developed, and they may stipulate that the game be completed before landing on the ground; otherwise, it will be a draw. GM Hans Niemann, proclaimed the Diving Chess Cape Town 2025 Champion after he beat GM Fabiano Caruana, may be looking to add a new trophy to his collection.

World Champion Will Lose 3 Consecutive Games

Perhaps this prediction is the boldest: GM Gukesh Dommaraju will lose three games in a row in classical chess. But isn’t the world champion almost invincible, particularly in a time control where he can play his best? As 2025 is ending, Gukesh sports a rating of 2754 in classical chess (much higher than his ratings in bullet and blitz).

However, this prediction may not be that bizarre because history can repeat itself. In 2025, Gukesh lost three consecutive games, so losing three may be in store again in 2026. In the FIDE Grand Swiss in Uzbekistan in September, he lost to GMs Abhimanyu Mishra, Nikolas Theodorou, and Ediz Gurel. Here’s the first of the losses which was to 16-year-old Mishra, who is now the youngest player to defeat a reigning champion in a game of classical chess (annotations are by GM Rafael Leitao): 

Winner Will Throw Losing Player Into Audience

Remember in October 2025 when Team USA beat Team India 5-0 in the Checkmate: USA vs India match in Arlington, Texas? What many remember is not the score or the games but how Nakamura took the idea of chess as a stadium sport to the next level when his game with Gukesh ended. Nakamura literally grabbed Gukesh’s king, threw it into the cheering audience, and then waved his arms in the air like a prize fighter.

In 2026, expect more efforts to advance how chess is viewed as a stadium sport. Not content with just throwing an opponent’s king into the audience, a winning player will throw his opponent off the playing stage into the audience.

Carlsen, Nakamura Will Battle For 3rd Place While Niemann Plays For First

The cream always rises to the top, but what would you think if at a prestigious tournament in 2026, Niemann plays for first place while GM Magnus Carlsen and Nakamura can compete for just third place? How can that happen when Carlsen and Nakamura are the world number-one and -two players?

Maybe it’s a surprise to realize that this prediction for next year is not so bold. Such results actually occurred in July 2025. While Niemann was playing in the Grand Final of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Las Vegas, Carlsen and Nakamura were battling for third place. (Carlsen won and took third place, and Neiman missed his chance for first place when he lost to GM Levon Aronian.)

Freestyle Chess Will Authorize Anal Beads

The 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, which just concluded in South Africa, showed how difficult playing freestyle chess (a variant also known as Chess960) really is. As Sebastian Siebrecht, tournament director of Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals, proclaimed: “Every new position can turn the standings upside down.”

In 2026, the players will be willing to turn more than the standings upside down when they insert special game-saving devices. To help them quickly unravel the best moves early in a game, tournament organizers will permit the use of anal beads. Although discredited during the infamous cheating allegations a couple of years ago, the beads are no longer subjects of taboo for the Freestyle Chess organizers who were overheard saying, “Freestyle means more than chess pieces are placed randomly.”

FIDE Will Pick Duolingo As Sponsor of Candidates Tournament

On the heels of being a sponsor for the Freestyle Chess Finals in South Africa, Duolingo will up its game. It may be shocking to think that FIDE will follow this example and welcome Duolingo, the online platform that provides free language and has recently added chess to its repertoire, as an official sponsor for its Candidates Tournament. The eight-player tournament, which will determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2026, will take place in Cyprus from March 28 to April 16, 2026.

“We are thrilled to welcome Duolingo as our Official Partner for the Glam Slam South Africa,” said Jan Henric Buettner, CEO of Freestyle Chess, in December 2025. Expect to see a similar announcement soon by Arkady Dvorkovich, FIDE president. (For more on how Duolingo is expanding into the world of chess, see the post “Duolingo Seeks To Benefit From Growing Worldwide Interest In Chess.”)

If you enjoy these predictions for 2026, reflect on this past year. Here’s what I predicted for 2025. Do you think these predictions for 2026 are too bold? What are your fearless forecasts for next year?