The 2025 US Chess Championships are taking place on 12-24 October at the Saint Louis Chess Club. Each tournament is a 12-player single round-robin with a classical time control. Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Hans Niemann are the highest-rated players in the open, while Carissa Yip, Alice Lee and Tatev Abrahamyan head the women's field. | Follow the action live starting at 19.00 CEST (13.00 ET, 22.30 IST)
The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam 2025 will conclude in South Africa with a final event from 8 to 11 December. At the Grootbos Private Nature Reserve in the Western Cape Province, eight of the world's best players, including Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, will compete both for the tournament victory and the series title. | Photo: Freestyle Chess/ Grootbos
The European Club Cup is taking place on 19-25 October in Rhodes, Greece, bringing together no fewer than 122 teams and around 800 players from around the world. The seven-round event features a number of elite players, including Arjun Erigaisi, Anish Giri, Gukesh Dommaraju, Aleksandra Goryachkina and Zhu Jiner. | Follow the action live with expert commentary starting at 14.00 CEST (8.00 ET, 17.30 IST)
Exactly one year ago, Robert Ris released an Underdog episode titled: 9-Year-Old Girl Defeats WIM Mariam Mkyrtchyan.
Now, that same girl—Bodhana Sivanandan—is 10 years old, and once again finds herself the underdog, this time facing none other than GM Mariya Muzychuk! It appears that opponents whose names include the letters “MKYC” and “H” tend to inspire brilliancies from Bodhana. The young English prodigy is clearly on a mission to make sure that by 2026, no one will dare call her an underdog any more.
Last Sunday, the family of 29-year-old American grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky announced his passing. No cause of death was given. Now, a major controversy has broken out: former world champion Vladimir Kramnik is being accused of harassing Naroditsky with suspicion of cheating. It is far too early to come to any conclusion in this matter, but the story has been splashed over international straight newspapers and channels.
Vincent Keymer raised his live Elo rating to 2771.7 with his third victory in three games at the European Club Cup in Rhodes. He is currently fourth in the world rankings, just ahead of Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi, who he will play against in the fifth round of the European Club Cup. | Photo: Gerd Densing
Did you find the only move in this very famous study, composed almost exactly a century ago, that allows White to draw? It looks like the stupidest move one could make – move the king to a square that takes it further away from the black pawn and blocks the promotion of his own pawn. Problem expert Werner Keym selected six studies in similar style for you to solve. Here, today, are the solutions.
Today, his family announced the death of Daniel Naroditsky. The talented American grandmaster was an active online player and streamer, as well as a popular commentator. He would have turned 30 on 9 November. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Take a look at this position. In order to have any winning chances, White must clearly move his rook. There are nine squares it can safely occupy, but only one retains the win. Can you find it? Today we have four problems that will challenge your endgame skills. Try to solve them by moving pieces on our interactive diagrams. The video solutions will be provided in a week.
The ninth and final round of the European Team Championships will determine the medal winners. In the Open Ukraine and Azerbaijan fight for victory, in the Women's Tournament Poland is in the lead, but Ukraine and Germany can still hope to win. | Watch the games live with video commentary. Start: Around 10:00 CEST.
Pierre de Fermat (1601–1665) was a French mathematician who made pioneering contributions to analytic geometry, calculus, optics, and probability. He is best known for Fermat's Last Theorem, which famously remained unproven for over three centuries. Then, thirty years ago (in 1995), the mathematician Andrew Wiles published the comprehensive proof. In his book "Chess Stories" mathematician Prof Christian Hesse, told us how he applied Fermat's final conjecture to chess.
Already in the second round of the famous Hastings tournament of 1895, two of the favourites faced each other in a tough and complex battle. After just thirteen moves, the game had reached a semi-endgame with two rooks and two minor pieces each. Lasker held the pair of bishops, but it was Chigorin with the pair of knights who emerged victorious in the end. The game made history, and its course has been interpreted very differently over time. We invite our readers to join us in the search for new insights.