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Chess Tidbits |
2026 Candidates
Eight players will qualify for the Candidates 2026, to select a challenger to World champion Gukesh Dommaraju.
Fabiano Caruana is the first person to guarantee himself a spot at the next Candidates. He achieved it through the 2024 FIDE Circuit, a new competition introduced by FIDE, which comprises a series of tournaments. Depending on the format and strength of each tournament, players earn Circuit points based on their performance, which are summed up at the end of the year. The player with the most points secures a place in the 2026 Candidates Tournament. This time two spots are being awarded in this manner: one for 2024 and another for 2025. Caruana ended up narrowly ahead of Arjun Erigaisi in the Circuit standings of 2024.
The 2025 FIDE Circuit winner also gets a spot. R. Praggnanandhaa is the frontrunner for this spot.
Similarly, the 2025 World Cup offers three spots for the Candidates 2026. It will be held in Goa this year from 31 Oct to 27 Nov. Magnus Carlsen is the defending champion.
The ongoing Grand Swiss tournament offers two spots to the top-two finishers for the Candidates 2026. This tournament is currently underway in Samarkand, capital of Uzbekistan.
Flash Update: Giri and Vaishali won the Grand Swiss event while Firouza and Assaubayeva were unlucky to finish 3rd, thus failing to qualify to Candidates 2026. Assaubayeva like our Prag is almost qualified thru the FIDE circuit. Bluebaum and Yuxin Song were among the finds of this tmt. In addition, Keymer (4th), Abhimanyu Mishra (5th), Arjun Erigaisi (6th), Andy Woodward (7th), Niemann (8th), Nihal Sarin (9th), Abdussatarov (10th) rounded up the top-10.
On 07-Sep-2025, in round four, 14 year old Turkish prodigy Yagiz Erdogmus played an amazing game versus Aditya Mittal, capping with a neat Queen sacrifice, which is widely being hailed as among the greatest games ever played. Here is the game:
The tournament helped him notch up six of the 22 Classical games that he needs to play in between August 2025 and January 2026 in order to be eligible for a Candidates spot based on his rating – assuming World #1 Carlsen remains out of the equation.
Sinquefield Cup
Wesley So was the surprise winner of 2025 Sinquefield Cup, now in its 12th edition. It ended with a three- way tie between Wesley So, R Praggnanandhaa and Fabiano Caruana at 5.5/9 points. So defeated Prag and drew with Caruana in blitz tiebreak to win his maiden title.
Final standings:
- Wesley So
- R Praggnanandhaa
- Fabiano Caruana
Losing to Prag in the opening round, world champion Gukesh had a poor run and came eighth among the 10 players.
Paris Freestyle/Chess 960 Grand Slam
It had a single-elimination tournament with round robin seeding and knock out rounds.
GM Magnus Carlsen won the 2025 Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, after what he called "a very nice, professional job" secured a draw and a 1.5-0.5 match victory over GM Hikaru Nakamura. The world #1 took the $200,000 top prize, Nakamura got $140,000, and GM Fabiano Caruana took $100,000. Caruana took a spot in the Las Vegas Grand Slam after crushing GM Vincent Keymer in the battle for third place.
Final standings:
- Magnus Carlsen
- Hikaru Nakamura
- Fabiano Caruana
- Vincent Keymer
Our Indian players had a forgettable tournament with R Praggnanadhaa (9th), Gukesh and Vidit Gujrathi last tied at 11th.
Fujairah Masters
Pranav Venkatesh, seeded 23rd won the inaugural Fujairah Masters 2025. He had won the World Junior Chess Championship held in Montenegro earlier this year. Another young Indian star on the horizon.
Women's World championship
Ju Wenjun of China beat compatriot Tan Zhongyi 6.5-2.5 to win the world championship title for the 5th time. This was the 3rd time these too have met in a world championship match.
Women's Speed chess 2025
Reigning champion Ju Wenjun defeated former champion and world #1 Hou Yifan 11.5-9.5. Hou had narrowly beaten Divya Deshmukh in quarterfinals 10.5-9.5.
Women's World Cup 2025
Divya Deshmukh was the surprise winner of the FIDE women’s World Cup 2025 at Batumi (Georgia) beating Koneru Humpy, a former World challenger and current World Rapid champion. After tying the Classical games 1-1, she won in tiebreak. Tan Zhongyi came third. Divya became the fourth Indian grandmaster among women. Divya, Humpy and Tan have qualified for the next Candidates as a result.
European Women’s Championship
Teodora Injac of Serbia became the new European women's champion.
Cheating raises its ugly head again
In a shocking incident, 22-year old grandmaster, world # 75 Kirill Shevchenko was stripped of his GM title for cheating and banned for three years. He was found guilty of cheating during Spanish Team championship in Oct 2024. He has become only the fourth player in chess history to be stripped of the GM title, after the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission (EDC) rejected his appeal in one of the most high-profile over-the-board cheating cases ever.
Born in Ukraine, and representing Romania since his transfer in 2023, Shevchenko has been regarded as a rising star in the chess world with several noteworthy results. He earned the GM title at the age of only 14 in 2017, as one of the youngest-ever, then won the 2021 European Team Championship with Ukraine. He also won a major blitz tournament ahead of several top GMs including Fabiano Caruana and Arjun Erigaisi.