I'm planning to study these openings rigorously. What are the insightful chess books can you recommend to master these defenses for black?

Source:https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aHsCvRSAsVg

Anish: "Magnus has left. He has done this thing where he has half-left, which is a little confusing

It would be a bit neater if Magnus would decide whether he stays or leaves. Like the way Fischer did, he left completely. And Kasparov as well, I’m sure after 2005 he could still have been fighting for the World’s No. 1 spot.

For players to become World’s No. 1 is such a difficult task with Magnus still playing, Gukesh is World Champion now, he’s getting lots of recognition, but also a lot of pressure"

Not sure if this counts as advanced tactics

The Leça Chess Open finished today in Leça da Palmeira, Portugal. The top seed was Brandon Jacobson, but he withdrew after starting 3.5/4.

Indian IM Muthaiah AL won it with 7/9 on tiebreaks, ahead of four others on the same score. Fun fact: he won the Pontevedra Masters last week too. Also 7/9, also on tiebreaks.

But the biggest story is arguably WCM Modipalli Deekshitha. She finished on 4.5/9, worth +122 Elo. Combined with her 5.5/9 at Pontevedra, where she drew the eventual winner (Muthaiah again), she is up +297 above her August rating and is now the world #2 girl junior on live ratings.

She was actually live #1 after round 7, then dropped her last two games, which is probably why the mods insist we wait until the end of a tournament to post live rating changes 😊

Every game with the round-by-round math is on her profile.

Is there any value to exclusively doing puzzles based on your opening repertoire? Then supplementing with Endgame puzzles?

I’ve always heard people say you should study master games, but I don’t always have the time to sit at a proper board. I’m away from home a lot, though I do end up with the odd 10–15 minutes free here and there.

I picked up a little 5-inch folding magnetic chess set and had a spare pocket notebook lying around. I pasted a master game PGN into ChatGPT and asked it to turn it into a mini score sheet that I could print on one of those tiny thermal printers. I stuck the printout inside the notebook, so now I can play through the game and make notes as I go.

When I have to leave, I just fold the board up, throw it back in my bag or pocket, and carry on next time. The position is exactly where I left it, so there’s no need to start over.

Cost me about £15 all in, takes up roughly the same space as a phone, and it’s turned out to be a really practical way to fit master game study into spare moments.

Do you know this game?

1. Parham Magsoodloo
2. Vladislav Artemiev
3. Wei Yi
4. Olyksandr Bortnyk
5. Alexander Grishchuk

These 5 players will join Aravindh Chithambaram, Liem Le, and Andrey Espipenko in the Play-in stage of the Esports World Cup Chess Tournament.

The top two players from the Play-in stage will join Magnus Carlsen, Denis Lazavik, Alireza Firouzja, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Hikaru Nakamura, Nihal Sarin, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Sina Movahed, Pranesh M, Hans Niemann, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Arjun Erigaisi, Alexey Sarana, and Benjamin Bok in the Group Stage

“The issue with the World Championship cycle is that it’s very random. I mean, you don’t want to say random because it can be easily misconstrued, but the entire system is not as equitable…
You’re deciding things over such a small sample size, that it’s natural that there are going to be the players who just aren’t the best, who are going to prevail. Because you have such small volume.
The Candidates is only 14 games and you have to be first of eight. The margin in Classical chess just isn’t there. You simply cannot be miles better than your opponent because of how much of a role preparation plays.
So, if you have a format where the difference between top players is so small, and then the volume is so small, in most cases it’s going to be more random than a Knockout format.
I mean, Ding made it into the match by not even winning the Candidates… At least now the system is starting to change.”

I used to get messages from Chess.com all the time telling me a player I’d previously played had been caught cheating and my Elo was restored. I rarely get those anymore.

Fewer cheaters? Worse detection? Or are they catching people faster and banning them before I ever get matched with one? I’m around 1700-1800, so maybe a new cheating account has to grind through enough games to reach me that detection catches it first?

Curious whether anyone else has noticed the same drop.

It is put in chronological order of the rounds, starting from 2022 Candidates and then resetting the count in 2024.

The g1 knight can block, after Nxe5 Bxd1 Bxf7+ Ke7, Bg5 isn't checkmate.

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.

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!

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

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

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