All Chess News

2025 World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship begins in Doha tomorrow

The 2025 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships start tomorrow in Doha, Qatar, running from December 26-30. First matches begin at 11:00 UTC. The open and women’s tournaments feature a combin…

December 25, 2025

“It’s like you’re playing against God” — Gukesh D on facing Vishy Anand at GCL Season 3

World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju described the mental challenge of playing Viswanathan Anand after his final-round victory in the Global Chess League third-place match. He shared his thoughts on Decem…

December 25, 2025

"Cheating in chess is not like doping in other sports, cheating is like murder in criminal law" — Alexander Grischuk on FIDE's approach to punishing cheaters

Alexander Grischuk criticized the current FIDE leadership's approach to punishing cheaters in a December 25 interview with Sport-Express.ru. The grandmaster specifically questioned the decision to gi…

December 25, 2025

"It's going to be hard to compete with Indian chess" — Fabiano Caruana on India's rise in world chess

World No.3 Fabiano Caruana described India as the new power center of chess and predicted its future dominance due to its young talent. He made the statement in an interview on the Firstpost YouTube …

December 24, 2025

Hikaru Nakamura — New Blitz Rating Record on Chess.com!

Hikaru Nakamura achieved a new peak Blitz rating of 3441 on Chess.com during the latest Title Tuesday on December 24. This surpasses his previous personal best and extends his lead at the top of the …

December 24, 2025

“Many of us were so shaky” — Anish Giri on his team victory in GCL Season 3

Dutch GM Anish Giri expressed happiness with his unexpected victory and team results in a post-game interview with ChessBase India on December 24. He acknowledged fortune in his win against Wei Yi, r…

December 24, 2025

"It's just a crapshoot!" — Magnus Carlsen on FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships 2025 Favorites

In a December 22 interview on the "Take Take Take" channel, Magnus Carlsen shared his thoughts on potential favorites for the upcoming FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships. He also addressed last y…

December 23, 2025

GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda wins Titled Tuesday on tiebreaks on December 23

GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda scored 9.5 points with 9 wins and 1 draw to win Titled Tuesday on December 23. Runner-up Maxime Vachier-Lagrave also drew once and lost once, which led him to finish second on t…

December 23, 2025

Fabiano Caruana’s Alpine SG Pipers becomes GCL Season 3 Champion!

Fabiano Caruana’s Alpine SG Pipers won the Global Chess League, defeating Alireza Firouzja’s Triveni Continental Kings in the final. The final was played in a Best-of-2 single elimination format, wit…

December 23, 2025

Hans Niemann on formats: “My main issue with classical chess is that the sample size is quite low”

GM Hans Niemann argued for chess formats that reward skill and adaptation in a recent YouTube podcast with Dina Belenkaya. He criticized classical chess for having too few games and favored faster ti…

December 23, 2025

Jose Martinez wins Ambassador's Exhibition blitz tournament at Global Chess League

The Global Chess League hosted the Ambassador's Exhibition, a 3+2 blitz round-robin event. This event featured official GCL Ambassadors of the Tech Mahindra GCL — Jose Martinez and Daniil Dubov, and …

December 22, 2025

Alireza Firouzja's Triveni Continental Kings to play in the grand finals of the GCL Season 3

The round-robin stage of GCL Season 3 concluded on December 22 with Alireza Firouzja's Triveni Continental Kings leading the tournament with 24 Match Points. The playoffs are scheduled for December 2…

December 22, 2025

Chess.com Awards 2025 — voting is open!

Community voting for the 2025 Chess.com Awards winners opened on December 17. The vote covers ten categories for performances and events from the past year. Participants are entered into a draw for t…

December 22, 2025

“I don’t consider myself an active player anymore” — Vidit Gujrathi on reducing his tournament schedule

Indian GM Santosh Gujrathi Vidit stated he no longer views himself as an active competitive player, explaining it was a conscious decision made late last year to reduce his tournament schedule. The g…

December 22, 2025

"Chess at the top-level needs renewing, but it's applicable for only few people" — Magnus Carlsen on chess format renewal for top players

Magnus Carlsen addressed the debate on renewing top-level chess formats in a recent interview at Megacampus. Magnus stated that the need for new formats in top-level chess is often not fully understo…

December 22, 2025

“The younger generation don't have fundamental principles” — Vishy Anand on the mindset of the younger generation of chess players

Former World Champion Viswanathan Anand discussed the mindset shift between chess generations, from fundamental principles to computer-influenced flexibility. Viswanathan shared his thoughts in the i…

December 21, 2025

Record-breaking victory! — Hikaru Nakamura’s team defeats Maxime Vachier-Lagrave’s team 16–1 in GCL Season 3

In the seventh round of GCL Season 3, the Fyers American Gambits defeated the upGrad Mumba Masters with a GCL-record 16-1 score. This victory moved the Fyers American Gambits past the Alpine SG Piper…

December 20, 2025

“Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura are overrated because they just barely play” — GM Hans Niemann names most overrated players from Top 20

GM Hans Niemann was asked on a recent episode of Dina Belenkaya's YouTube podcast whom he considers the most overrated players in the world's top 20 rating list. Niemann selected the top two spots — …

December 20, 2025

Magnus Carlsen wins Freestyle Friday with 0.5 point lead on December 19

Magnus Carlsen scored 9 wins and 1 draw to win the December 19 Freestyle Friday tournament with 9.5 points. He finished half a point ahead of runner-up GM Sam Sevian with 9 points.

December 19, 2025

"I think there's basically a 0% chance of that” — Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen on their children’s potential chess rivalry

Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen shared their views on a potential future chess rivalry between their children in the Freestyle Chess interview. Both grandmasters expressed doubt that they would pu…

December 19, 2025