The Chess England event was a rare test of UK skills against strong foreign opposition Master chess in central London is rare, although the annual ChessFest in Trafalgar Square attracts more than 20,000 visitors. In London’s clubland in Pall Mall, the RAC clubhouse has hosted the Oxford v Cambridge Varsity match for almost half a century, while the Athenaeum was the venue for a dramatic match in 2

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Host nation won having led almost from start to finish, while young English player reached a stunning landmark Uzbekistan, the host nation, won the open gold medals at the 2026 Olympiad, the biennial chess international team tournament, at Samarkand last week in the style of the legendary Soviet grandmasters of long ago. India, the defending champions, were second, Germany a surprise third, and th

Bodhana Sivanandan’s father taught her to play age five and soon she was beating ex-champions. Now she is lighting up the Chess Olympiad Over the weekend, 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest ever holder of the title of woman grandmaster at the Chess Olympiad in Uzbekistan – while playing on a car booster seat so she could reach the board. By Tuesday morning she was back at school in

The Uzbeks, including world championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov, won their first seven matches before a surprise loss to Germany After eight of the 11 rounds in the 400-team Olympiad in Samarkand, the host team Uzbekistan share the lead in the race for the gold medals, despite a round eight loss to co-leaders Germany and scope for more upsets in the remaining three rounds. England have lost

The former world title challenger, 61, will take on representatives from five other continents in a tournament rated by the global chess body Fide Nigel Short, the 1993 world title challenger, will head to the Antarctic for his next tournament as the 61-year-old, formerly of Bolton but resident for many decades in Greece, attempts to become the first chess player to win tournaments on seven contin

England Open squad have internal tensions but the women’s team blend rising talent with experience Uzbekistan, the host nation, are the favourites to win the 208-team biennial chess Olympiad in Samarkand , which has its opening ceremony on Tuesday, and its first round (of 11) on Wednesday. The defending champions, India, China and the US are Uzbekistan’s most dangerous rivals. India would have bee

Fans would have preferred contest for world crown, but 20-minute Rapid games are still competitive substitute Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, will be paired at least twice in the next few days with the world championship challenger, Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov, in the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League, the six-team franchise competition based on cricket’s Indian Premier League. In 2024 the Glob

The Indian, just 21, scored his second major success of the summer following Norway Chess at Oslo while Wesley So halved to Sinquefield Cup victory with nine straight draws India’s world No 12, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, won the Grand Chess Tour finals in St Louis on Thursday night when he defeated the US’s world No 2, Fabiano Caruana, in a mix of classical, rapid and blitz games by 15-13. It was

Norway’s world No 1 outclassed the field and won the $250,000 first prize at the four-day event in France Magnus Carlsen, Norway’s world No 1, triumphed again last weekend when he won the 2026 Esports World Cup, staged over four days at the prestigious venue of the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Carlsen retained his title from Riyadh 2025 and took home a monster first prize of $250,000 (£183,000)

Bodhana Sivanandan, 11, is youngest ever British women’s champion while Supratit Banerjee, 12, becomes England’s youngest ever international master A new generation took over at the top of British chess on Sunday, when a trio of youthful talents demonstrated their skills on a national stage. Shreyas Royal, 17, of Dartford, Kent, became the youngest ever British champion, breaking Michael Adams’s 1

The Taunton grandmaster had been unbeaten in 87 games in a row, during which time he had won all his nine titles Michael Adams, the 54-year-old Taunton grandmaster aiming for a record-equalling 10th British title, began with three wins but in round four suffered his first championship defeat since 1988 when he resigned a lost rook endgame after 60 moves to the rising Ukrainian talent Svyatoslav Ba

Harrow schoolgirl eclipses legend Judit Polgar as youngest girl ever to score international master result England’s 11-year-old talent Bodhana Sivanandan fought her way to another world age record last Saturday. Sivanandan ended the Dole Trophy in Aix-en-Provence, France, with a historic first international master result. Judit Polgar, the all-time No 1 woman, achieved her first IM norm in April 1

She Plays to Win face losing one of their female players after being told team must include a male The UK’s only all-female chess team have been promoted to the game’s top tier – only to be told they will have to add a man to their squad. She Plays to Win Lionesses A Team have fallen foul of a rule designed to boost female participation in the sport. Continue reading...

Geneva chosen over US, India and Cyprus Switzerland to host for first time since 2004 Gukesh and Sindarov both 20 at first move Geneva has been chosen to host this year’s world chess championship match, with Fide announcing on Tuesday that reigning champion Gukesh Dommaraju will defend his title against challenger Javokhir Sindarov in the Swiss city from 25 November to 15 December. Both Gukesh, of

Harrow schoolgirl eclipses legend Judit Polgar’s mark as youngest girl ever to defeat a grandmaster rated above 2600, then draws with a former 2700 England’s 11-year-old talent Bodhana Sivanandan scored her best individual result last Saturday, when the Harrow schoolgirl defeated France’s 2628-rated grandmaster Marc’Andria Maurizzi, 19, in the opening round of the Dole Trophy in Aix-en-Provence. M

EU unveils largest package in four years of measures against Russian individuals and interests; Laura Loomer shows up in Kyiv. What we know on day 1,612 Continue reading...

Judit Polgár says she does not ‘feel enough strength within me’ to take on the responsibility of uniting a divided nation The Hungarian chess ⁠legend Judit Polgár has said she will not accept the nomination for president, only a day after the ⁠prime minister, Péter Magyar, ⁠said he ​would ask her to take up the largely ceremonial role. Magyar had said he would meet Polgár on Monday to discuss the

Two of the top four chess nations will go head to head in Miami on 27-28 July The USA and Uzbekistan are among the world’s current four best chess teams, along with India and China, so the announcement that the pair will meet at Miami on 27-28 July in an all-play-all rapid and blitz Scheveningen format is sure to create interest as a guide to what may happen when the 200-nation classical Olympiad

The Frenchman is ranked world No 12, but that is a disappointment after he became the youngest ever 2800-rated player at 18 years and five months Alireza Firouzja is shaping up to be one of the nearly men of grandmaster chess. The Iran-born Frenchman, 23, has just won the St Louis-organised Croatia Super Rapid and Blitz in Zagreb. He was far ahead at the start of the last day, but had a poor run o