The FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 and FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament 2026 start this Sunday, March 29, and they are the two most important over-the-board tournaments of the year. Each of them will determine a challenger for the world champio...
Since GM Jose Martinez won the inaugural 3 0 Thursday tournament in November, GM Fabiano Caruana has been the only player to win more than one of the three weekly events on the same day. Martinez joined him in impressive fashion on Thursday, March...
To win Titled Tuesday, 3 0 Thursday, or Freestyle Friday it usually takes at least 9.5 points out of 11. Occasionally, nine points suffices. But, for Freestyle Friday on March 27, it only took an 8.5/11 score for GM Vincent Keymer to win on tiebre...
GMs Magnus Carlsen, Vincent Keymer, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov headline the Grenke Freestyle Chess Open, part of the Grenke Chess Festival, which runs April 2-6 in Karlsruhe, Germany and is one of the largest and most spectacular events in the worl...
India's GM Nihal Sarin was the only unbeaten player as he won the final Play-In of the 2026 Chess.com Open and made what he joked was "a very tough choice" to play GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and not GM Magnus Carlsen in the Playoffs. The playe...
After just seven moves, GM Judit Polgar already held a clear advantage. By move 15, the game was effectively over. Twelve moves later, checkmate followed. The strongest female player in history showed no mercy against The World, defeating more tha...
GM Zhamsaran Tsydypov scored 9.5/11 to win his first Titled Tuesday ever on March 24, despite taking a draw in a dead-winning position the final round. GM Vladimir Fedoseev, the only player who could have caught him, blundered into checkmate again...
Fifteen-year-old GM Sina Movahed won Play-In 3 of the 2026 Chess.com Open with 7.5/9 and picked GM Arjun Erigaisi as his knockout opponent. Four players scored 7/9, with GMs Vladislav Artemiev and Nihal Sarin missing out on tiebreaks, while GMs Da...
GM Koneru Humpy has announced her withdrawal from the FIDE Women's Candidates, citing safety concerns ahead of the event in Cyprus. She is replaced by GM Anna Muzychuk, who said she is surprised and thankful for the opportunity to fight for the ti...
The 14-year-old Turkish sensation GM Yagiz Erdogmus made a big splash on his return to the Bullet Brawl arena on Saturday, taking the top spot ahead of 176 titled players. Erdogmus accumulated 162 points, comprising 49 wins, two draws, and 16 loss...
Some weeks, a score of nine out of eleven is enough to win 3 0 Thursday, but on March 19, all three tournament winners won at least ten games, leaving little doubt regarding the best performance in each event. GM Aravindh Chithambaram won the firs...
GM Benjamin Bok won Freestyle Friday on March 20, becoming the 25th different player to win the event. He also became the fifth different winner in the first five weeks of the Freestyle Friday Championship. Bok's 9.5 points out of 11 were enough t...
GM Koneru Humpy has said she is likely to withdraw from the upcoming FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament, scheduled to take place in Paphos, Cyprus, from March 29 to April 16, following safety concerns. The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has...
GMs Pranesh M and Yu Yangyi qualified for the 2026 Chess.com Open Playoffs through Play-In 2 on Wednesday. Pranesh advanced directly by having better tiebreaks than GM Wesley So, the only other player to finish on 7.5/9. Yu, who finished the ...
Titled Tuesday on March 17 was decided on the clock, as GM Nihal Sarin took home the victory with a final-round win over GM Nils Grandelius, with just 0.7 seconds remaining when Grandelius' time expired in a drawn rook ending. Nihal started 8/8 an...
GMs Ian Nepomniachtchi and Nodirbek Abdusattorov qualified for the 2026 Chess.com Open Playoffs through Play-In 1 on Monday. Nepomniachtchi won the tournament outright, while Abdusattorov finished second and secured his spot by defeating third-pla...
GM Awonder Liang beat GM Hikaru Nakamura 6-4 in the Hikaru vs. Awonder Candidates Training Match held in the Saint Louis Chess Club on March 13-15, 2026. The players made two draws in classical chess, then Liang won 3-1 in rapid, before the final ...
GM Oleksandr Bortnyk entered the Bullet Brawl ring and emerged victorious for the second week in a row on Saturday after storming home and posting a score of 161 points, pocketing the $400 first prize for the 16th time. In second place was GM Ar...
GM Pranav Venkatesh won his first Freestyle Friday of the new Freestyle Friday Championship on March 13, taking it outright with 9.5/11, as four different players have now won the first four tournaments of the new stakes (qualification for the 202...
IM Renato Terry won a 3 0 Thursday tournament for the third week in a row, setting a new record with nine victories in the event. GM Oleksandr Bortnyk joined him, winning his third title, as did GM Benjamin Bok, winning for the first time. Th...
Sixteen-year-old IM Alice Lee is once again the champion of The Women's American Cup 2026 for the third year in a row. In the Grand Final Reset against IM Carissa Yip, Lee won the first rapid game and drew the second to secure the match. GM Wesl...
GM Wesley So won his maiden title in The American Cup 2026 on Wednesday. After winning the first game against GM Levon Aronian the previous day, he held the necessary draw in game two to secure the match. He makes $75,000 plus another $15,000 bonu...
GM Wesley So has taken the lead in his match against GM Levon Aronian in The American Cup 2026 Grand Final. It was an Italian Opening gone wrong for the Armenian-American, and So won a remarkably smooth game. Aronian must win the next game on...
The University Of Texas At Dallas (UTD) was the top team in the Fall 2025 regular season of the Collegiate Chess League (CCL). However, in the playoffs, they fell just short, losing to St. Louis University (SLU) in the finals, 8.5-7.5. In the spri...
GM Sina Movahed, the 15-year-old Iranian grandmaster coming off of victory in the Under-16 ChessKid Youth Championship, became the first player to score 10.5 points in a Titled Tuesday in 2026 on March 10, going to wire-to-wire to win the tourname...
