World number-one Magnus Carlsen is the first ever Chess Esports World Cup Champion after winning the final three games to beat GM Alireza Firouzja in the Grand Final. Carlsen took the $250,000 top prize and saw his Team Liquid sneak ahead in the o...
GM Vladislav Artemiev, who also participated in the 2025 Esports World Cup this week, has taken home the first Freestyle Friday of August, the fourth straight week where someone won the event for the first time. The tournament still in the balance...
World number-one Magnus Carlsen will take on GM Alireza Firouzja in the 2025 Esports World Cup Grand Final after defeating GM Hikaru Nakamura 4-3 in an epic match decided only in armageddon. Carlsen had earlier defeated GM Nihal Sarin 2.5-0.5, whi...
The focus of this month's article will be on the women's rating list, as the 2025 FIDE Women's World Cup brought many changes. GM Divya Deshmukh was the player of the month as she was the first IM to ever win the event and, through it, earn the gr...
GMs Ian Nepomniachtchi (Group A), Nihal Sarin (Group B), Hikaru Nakamura (Group C), and Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Group D) won their respective Losers Brackets to complete the field of eight players in the 2025 Esports World Cup Quarterfinals. They j...
WFM Bodhana Sivanandan continued her rise in the chess world on Sunday by becoming the youngest player ever to achieve a Woman Grandmaster (WGM) norm, at just 10 years old. The historic feat came at the Dole Trophy 2025, held from July 19-27 in Ai...
The last Titled Tuesdays of July saw two players, GMs Maksim Chigaev and Salem Saleh, win their first of 2025. For Chigaev, it had been nearly a decade since his previous victory on June 7, 2016, while Saleh previously won on June 28, 2022. Chigae...
GMs Levon Aronian (Group A), Arjun Erigaisi (Group B), Alireza Firouzja (Group C), and Magnus Carlsen (Group D) all won two matches to reach the Quarterfinals of the 2025 Esports World Cup. On their last lives in the Losers Brack...
GM Divya Deshmukh defeated GM Koneru Humpy 1.5-0.5 in tiebreaks to win the 2025 FIDE Women's World Cup. She earns not only $50,000, with $35,000 going to the runner-up, but she is also awarded the grandmaster title. Nineteen years old, she is the ...
GM Tan Zhongyi won with the black pieces against GM Lei Tingjie to finish in third place at the 2025 FIDE Women's World Cup. She qualifies for the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates and earns a $25,000 prize. The match for first place, between IM Divya ...
GMs Anish Giri, Levon Aronian, Nihal Sarin, and Javokhir Sindarov have taken the final four spots in the $1.5 million main chess event of the 2025 Esports World Cup. Giri won in the most dramatic fashion, flagging GM Hans Niemann in a losing posit...
16-year-old GM Ediz Gurel impressively scored 161 points in Saturday's Bullet Brawl and 6/8 against 29-time winner GM Daniel Naroditsky to clinch his fourth career title and the $400 first prize. Naroditsky and GM Andrew Tang challenged Gurel bu...
Both games were drawn in game one of the 2025 FIDE Women's World Cup Finals, but neither of them was dull. IM Divya Deshmukh gained a massive advantage as early as move 10 and even sacrificed a piece, but GM Koneru Humpy got away. In the match for...
GM Alexander Fishbein clinched the U.S. Senior Championship title by winning a playoff on Friday with GM Vladimir Akopian and GM Alexander Shabalov after all three had finished in a tie for first. Fishbein earned $23,167. GM Andy Woodward was the ...
GMs Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Hans Niemann topped Groups C and D of the 2025 Esports World Cup Last Chance Qualifier as the 16-player field was completed for Saturday's Playoffs. They were joined by GMs Yu Yangyi, Javokhir Sindarov, Anish Giri...
GM Ian Nepomniachtchi doesn't really need to add too many more accomplishments to his resume, but he did that on July 25 by winning his first Freestyle Friday ahead of GMs Jeffery Xiong and Jan-Krzysztof Duda on tiebreaks. The field of 175 pl...
GM Levon Aronian continued his form from Las Vegas as he topped Group A of the Last Chance Qualifier in Riyadh for the 2025 Esports World Cup, while GMs Dmitry Andreikin, Vidit Gujrathi, and Daniil Dubov were all eliminated. GMs Alexey Sarana, Mar...
GM Vladimir Fedoseev emerged as the winner of the grueling Biel Masters Triathlon, an event that required him to play a total of 30 games in Chess960, blitz, rapid, and classical formats over 11 days. The Russian grandmaster, who lives in Germany ...
GM Koneru Humpy was on the brink of elimination in the 2025 FIDE Women's World Cup Semifinals after losing the third tiebreak game. But she won on demand in game four and then won the two blitz games—pulling off the hat trick—to advanc...
21-year-old Bibisara Assaubayeva has officially become the 43rd woman to achieve the grandmaster title, joining a prestigious list of players to achieve the feat. IM Roman Shogdzhiev has also been confirmed as the world's youngest international ma...
IM Divya Deshmukh eliminated GM Tan Zhongyi from the 2025 FIDE Women's World Cup, extending her Cinderella story into the Final with a third consecutive match victory over a grandmaster. She also earns her first grandmaster norm and a spot in the ...
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has approved the participation of a Russian team in the upcoming 2025 Women's World Team Championship. The controversial decision has led to several reactions, most notably from the Ukrainian Chess Federat...
Both Titled Tuesday events of July 22 were close, but in the end, GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Bogdan-Daniel Deac won out. They scored 9.5 points each, beating out GMs Jeffery Xiong and Matthias Bluebaum, respectively, on tiebreaks. Both Nakamura ...
Four cities in two continents played over-the-board chess against one another on International Chess Day (July 20). The event, Portals x Chess.com, was a celebration of chess that connected Dublin, Ireland; Lublin, Poland; Philadelphia, U.S.A.; an...
With no decisive results after game one of the 2025 FIDE Women's World Cup Semifinals, tensions rise as we enter the second and potentially last game of each match. IM Divya Deshmukh held a quick draw with Black against GM Tan Zhongyi, while GM Ko...
