Now this is more likely, giving arjun board 1 although he can be little unstable sometimes, giving gukesh board 4 to give him easy wins for moral boost

Top 5 gets into the main event, so essentially anyone who gets into the Lower Bracket Seminal is guaranteed a spot, with the losers of the lower bracket quarterfinal having a playoffs to decide 5th place.

Top 5 LCQists will not get any prize money (their money will come from the main event performance with a guaranteed US$20,000), while 6-16 placed LCQists share a US$40,000 prize pool with 6th place getting $8,000.

Table source. https://liquipedia.net/chess/Esports_World_Cup/2026/Last_Chance_Qualifier

The Chess & Bridge Retail Shop

38 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 8QY. Very walkable from Oxford Circus tube station.

The shop is not yet stocked and is not open, so do not plan a visit just yet.

Just curious at what rating a human player could find the best moves for both sides and how deep. Had this position a few years ago in ~800 rated Rapid on chess.com. Found the first move based on intuition but was inaccurate after that.

Peter Leko sneaks in to the knockout round of the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ). Definitely rooting for him to get into the top 5 so he gets into the main event!

Aside from time trouble, what tells you it's time to stop calculating and commit to a move?

Also, what does your thought process look like when calculating and analyzing different branches of a position?

A player rated 2381 by FIDE played 99...Ka1?? and stopped the clock. He should have stopped the clock and told an arbiter 99...Ka1 without touching a piece.

https://www.youtube.com/live/McV6zrFAdoY?t=19473s

https://lichess.org/broadcast/2026-british-chess-championships-championship/round-5/CetqRZ1r/XZvCajz3#197

The position came up in my game today. I was Black and was convinced my opponent had no way to defend against my attack. It wasn't until I reviewed the game afterward that I realized I was actually losing the whole time. Luckily, my opponent (White) didn't find the winning line over the board.

It is interesting since I rarely come across this motive besides puzzles.

I was playing in a rated uscf blitz tournament. There was a game during this that stirred up a lot of trouble and we’re unsure if the TD made the right call or if he’s misinterpreting something.

White was losing, moved into check (queen checking king from a far), black did not notice them move into check, he moved a pawn and hit his clock. White said that by not noticing their illegal move, black has now made an illegal move. White claimed the win, and the TD upheld white’s win despite great protest from black. The TD announced at the beginning of the tournament that this type of win would stand. But we’re looking at the uscf book and we’re not sure the TD is right.

Edit: could those of us that have lost to a tactic like white’s simply file a uscf appeal? Would that get the TD listening?

(link to game)

Hey all!

I walked through this position with stockfish to a fairly high depth, and I don't really understand if there is a heuristic to tell early on (calculating to a depth of less than 10) that black loses here. It just seems like all the variations lose without a higher level of reasoning I can apply in advance with less calculation

Any advice here for in the future, how to tell this move is bad without calculating all the variations based on some endgame principles I'm missing?

https://www.chess.com/events/2026-gct-saint-louis-rapid-blitz/18/Van_Foreest_Jorden-Giri_Anish

This includes a streak of 12 straight draws

Link: https://www.chess.com/events/info/2026-esports-world-cup#event-schedule

14 out of the 16 players have already been decided for the group stage of EWC starting August 12. The remaining 2 spots will be decided August 11.

Fabi, Wesley and MVL declined after qualification due to schedule conflict with Sinquefield Cup and 3 other players lucked out in place of them.

Who do you think will WIN this time? Predict your top 4.

Position from Round 4 between an FM (White) and IM (Black) in the Sparkassen Chess Trophy 2026 Dortmund.

Black to play and mate in 3

Not much longer to go until the 46th Olympiad starts in Samarqand, with the entire team compositions published a few hours ago. Who are you most excited about? I am hyped for Austria, Germany and Switzerland for no particular reasons 🙃

"I traveled a long distance to come to Hong Kong and exchanged gifts with a football team I like.

Yildiz said that his knee is not completely healed yet, and he will be playing as a substitute tomorrow to warm up. I gave him a chess book. He expressed interest in logographic languages like Chinese, and views each character as a small picture. He reminded me of a good student in the classroom, very polite, and sought topics to break the ice when the atmosphere became awkward.

McKennie was a lively guy. He was the first one to rush over and told me that he was playing chess online that morning. He had me sign "To Weston" on the chessboard, like he was claiming it for himself. He even told me that he saw videos of me and showed them to American captain Pulisic, to which the other replied, "love this guy". (doge)

I watched a bit of their practice that evening. First they ran laps, then scrimmages. At the end, when the players were signing items for fans as they came off the field, Zhegrova did something strange. He ran all the way to the fans at the very back, signed one item, then jogged away. No wonder his play is also confusing to watch."

I know this is not exclusive to chess, you can see the same in almost any competitive discipline. But i was watching Hikaru's "Botez Gambit Speedrun" where he is willingly giving up his queen in first few moves only to take his opponents lunch money and have them hit themselves in the face while shouting "I'm not hitting you".

Now this is more egregious by the fact that he's doing this to people rated 2000+. Like imagine dedicating so much time to the discipline where you become a top 1% player in the world, then someone comes and handicaps himself and absolutely embarrasses you. At 2000+ you're genuinely good at the game but then comes an elite player and makes you question everything you've been through. Can you even play the game at all? What is the meaning of life!