The Week in Chess

Clutch Chess: The Legends 2026 - Games and results

Mark Crowther — Sun Sep 13 22:09:00 2026

Clutch Chess: The Legends was a match between Garry Kasparov and Veselin Topalov held over three days at the Saint Louis Chess Club. The games were Chess960. There were two time controls: Rapid (Games 1, 2, 5, 6, 9 and 10) 25+10spm and Blitz (3, 4, 7, 8, 11 and 12) 5m+3spm. The Clutch Chess is all about the scoring; day one has a normal score, day 2 has double day 1 and day 3 is triple day one, the idea being that there is a building excitement. There was also bonus money, up to $24,000 that rolled over to the final two games if there was a draw. I cannot currently display Chess960 games, Topalov won the match 16-8, The rapid portion saw Topalov win a rapid game on day one and Kasparov on day 3, the rest were drawn. Topalov won 5 of the 6 blitz games only losing one, on the first day.

Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2026 - Games and results

Mark Crowther — Sun Sep 13 17:24:00 2026

The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League took place in Bengaluru, India 5th-13th September 2026. 6 Teams played over 10 rounds in rapid (10m+2spm) chess. The winners were Ganges Grandmasters with Ian Nepomniachtchi as the Legend and Levon Aronian as their board 2. Magnus Carlsen's Alpine APL Pipers finished second after losing the final. Nepomniachtchi was allowed to escape a lost position against Magnus Carlsen and turned it round for a win. FYERS American Gambits finished in 3rd after beating CheQ Mumba Masters.

Legends and Prodigies II 2026 - Games and results

Mark Crowther — Sun Sep 13 17:20:00 2026

The second Legends and Prodigies tournament took place in Madrid Mon 7th to Sat 12th Sep 2026. David Anton Guijarro was a convincing winner with a score of 7.5/10 a point and a half clear of Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara, prodogy Faustino Oro finished on 5.5 points. Francisco Fiorito won the B-tournament with 7/9.

European Senior Team Championship 2026 - Games and results

Mark Crowther — Fri Sep 4 19:21:00 2026

The European Senior Team Championship 2026 took place Thu 27th August to Fri 4th September 2026. In the +50 event final Standings: 1st England 1, 17pts. 2nd Italy, 16pts. 3rd-4th Netherlands were just ahead of Slovakia on tie-break after they both scored 13pts. In the +65 final 1st Slovenia who overtook England on tie-break after winning their final round 4-0 against SG Riehen Switzerland, both teams scored 16pts and they were a point clear of Italy.

Season Four of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League - Start

Mark Crowther — Fri Sep 4 12:55:00 2026

The 2026 Tech Mahindra Global Chess League runs Sat 5th-13th Sept in Bengaluru, India. It uses a rapid time control of 20 minutes plus 2 seconds a move. Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja and Viswanathan Anand star. League: 6 teams 10 matches, the top two finishers play for the title, the next two for 3rd-4th.

TCh-ESP 1st Div 2026 - Games and results

Mark Crowther — Thu Sep 3 18:43:00 2026

The Spanish CECLUB 1st Div took place Thu 27th August to Wed 2nd September 2026. Club Ajedrez Solvay headed by Vasyl Ivanchuk won the title.

Final Standings: 1st Club Ajedrez Solvay, 14.0 points. 2nd Andreu Paterna, 9.0. 3rd Platja Daro Club Escacs, 8.0. 4th Ciudad Naranco, 7.0. 5th-7th Granada Sidn-civica-nazaries-trevenque, Club Ajedrez Sestao and Gros Xake Taldea, 6.0. 8th Ca Fundacion La Caja, 0.0. 8 teams.

Green Hills Resort Masters 2026 - Games and results

Mark Crowther — Mon Aug 31 11:00:00 2026

The Green Hills Resort Masters took place 30th-31st August in the Bostanlyk district which is 75km from Tashkent. The event was one day of rapid and one of blitz, the rapid games counted double.

Nodirbek Yakubboev was something of a surprise winner, in the rapid he scored 6/7, which converted to 12 points, 3 points clear of the field going into the second day of blitz. In spite of finishing only 6th of 8 in the blitz he just hung on to win by half a point from Nodirbek Abdusattorov who beat him in their individual blitz game. Vladislav Artemiev finished in third place and Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus finished in fourth; Shakhriyar Mamedyarov had a terrible couple of days finishing last in the rapid and 7th in the blitz.

Sofia Cup 2026 - Games and results

Mark Crowther — Sun Aug 30 16:05:00 2026

The Sofia Cup, also known as the Balkan Rapid and Blitz Championships took place 29th to 30th August 2026. Players: Alireza Firouzja Rauf Mamedov, Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli, Vojtech Plat, Leon Livaic, Sanan Sjugirov, Ediz Gurel, Ivan Cheparinov etc.

Rauf Mamedov won the rapid event on tie-break from Alireza Firouzja and Dimitris Alexakis after all finished on 7.5/9. Firouzja was the clear winner of the blitz with 9.5/11 half a point clear of Ediz Gurel and Mamedov .

Grand Chess Tour Finals 2026 - Games and results

Mark Crowther — Sat Aug 29 18:17:00 2026

The Grand Chess Tour Finals took place in Saint Louis 22nd to 27th August 2026. This was the final event of the tour and a total prize fund of $450,000, was distributed as follows: $200,000 for first place, $125,000 for second, $75,000 for third, and $50,000 for fourth. The top four players with the best results during the tour were in finishing order: No. 1 Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Seed No. 2 Wesley So, Seed No. 3 Fabiano Caruana, and Seed No. 4 Vincent Keymer.

In the semi-finals Praggnanandhaa beat Vincent Keymer comfortably, winning one of the two classical games and then both rapid games, Keymer won the blitz section but it didn't matter. Fabiano Caruana overcame Wesley So in a close match until the blitz. In the final Caruana led Praggnanandhaa after the Classical games but lost both of the rapid games. The match was tied a couple of games into the blitz but then Praggnanandhaa ran away with it. Very similarly in the 3rd - 4th playoff the match was tied early on in the final blitz but Wesley So won the blitz section 8-0 against Vincent Keymer and that was that, Keymer might be invited back, the other three qualified for next year's tour with these results.

6th Cairns Cup 2026 - Games and Results

Mark Crowther — Sun Aug 23 10:37:00 2026

The 6th Cairns Cup 2026 took place Mon 10th to Fri 21st August 2026. Tan Zhongyi won with 6½/9 half a point clear of Alice Lee on 6. She earned her first GM norm in the 2026 Cairns Cup at the age of 16.

13th Sinquefield Cup 2026 - Games and Results

Mark Crowther — Thu Aug 20 06:44:00 2026

The 13th Sinquefield Cup took place 10th to 20th August 2026. Players: Fabiano Caruana, Javokhir Sindarov, Vincent Keymer, Wesley So, Anish Giri, Praggnanandhaa R, Jorden Van Foreest, Maxime Vachier-lagrave, Levon Aronian and Samuel Sevian.

Wesley So took first place from Praggnanandhaa after winning a tie-break match. The players scored 5.5/9 to share first place and then drew two 10 minutes plus 5 seconds a move rapid game, a final Armageddon game was required, Wesley had the black pieces and draw odds, the game finished at King vs King and thus so had the draw he needed.

Carlsen wins the Chess event in the Esports World Cup - Final

Mark Crowther — Sat Aug 15 18:42:00 2026

Magnus Carlsen convincingly won the lucrative chess final of the Esports World Cup which is being held in Paris, France. The event as a whole has 25 tournaments held over 24 different games and takes place July 6th to August 23rd, a period of 48 days. The claimed total prize fund for the entire event is US$75 million, the total for the chess was $1.5m with $250,000 for the winner, $190,000 for second, $145,000 for third place, and $115,000 fourth place. It might truly be said that the only really serious thing about the chess tournament in the Esports World Cup is the prize money.

The players also sign up to be part of teams such as Team Liquid, Team Vitality, Karmine Corp, Ninjas in Pyjamas, who are legends in their own right. Games played alongside the chess include Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Counter-Strike 2, EA Sports FC 26, PUBG and Fortnite.

Esports World Cup 2026 - Games and Results

Mark Crowther — Sat Aug 15 16:53:00 2026

The Esports World Cup chess section took place in Paris Tue 11th Aug to Sat 15th Aug 2026. This Double Elimination KO event featured Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakmura, Alireza Firouzja and Denis Lazavik among many famous names and faces. I have a new table format to show the results (although the introduction of sets in the final I couldn't handle) and all the games are also available. Carlsen was an easy winner of the final winning both sets comfortably and he didn't lose a game. Hikaru Nakamura finished in 3rd place winning his match against Firouzja which was plagued by technical issues and a loss in game 4 led to Firouzja just quitting.

112th British Chess Championships 2026 - Games and Results

Mark Crowther — Sun Aug 9 19:46:00 2026

The 112th British Chess Championships took place at the University of Warwick 1st to 9th August 2026. Luke McShane, Michael Adams, Shreyas Royal, Harry Grieve etc. Most interesting is the number of young players with Bodhana Sivanandan being one of those. The event delivered on its promise with 17-year-old Shreyas Royal earning his first title and Bodhana Sivanandan winning a tie-break match against Trisha Kanyamarala to win her first title at a record breaking 11-years-old, the women competed in the main championship and Bodhana's only loss was to the winner. It was only a few years ago that the British was a depressing run down affair making me wonder where all the juniors were, well they were just getting started at that point apparently.

WR Chess Rapid & Blitz Miami 2026 - Games and Results

Mark Crowther — Tue Jul 28 10:14:00 2026

The WR Chess Rapid & Blitz Miami was a two day rapid and then blitz match between the USA and Uzbekistan ahead of the Olympiad. Team: Ukbekistan: Javokhir Sindarov, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Nodirbek Yakubboev, Shamsiddin Vokhidov, Mukhiddin Madaminov, USA: Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, Leinier Dominguez Perez. Each round was a team match with 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw. The USA narrowly won both days.

Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters 2026 - Games and Results

Mark Crowther — Wed Jul 22 14:55:00 2026

The Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters took place Thu 16th Jul to Wed 22nd Jul 2026. Alireza Firouzja took clear first place with 4½/7 half a point clear of Dmitry Andreikin and Arjun Erigaisi, The poor form of World Champion Gukesh continues as he finished dead last on 2/7 and is in danger of falling below 2700. Gukesh continues to play wildly ambitious chess, it's still possible to believe he'll turn this around.

Sergei Tiviakov wins his fourth Netherlands Chess Championship - Final

Mark Crowther — Sat Jul 11 19:01:00 2026

Sergei Tiviakov was the surprise winner of the 2026 Netherlands Chess Championships held at the Renaissance Amsterdam Schiphol Airport Hotel. Whilst the event was missing the strongest two players, Anish Giri and Jordan van Foreest, it was a pretty respectable field and Tiviakov was the eighth seed.

Tiviakov beat IM Eelke De Boer in the first round. In the second he lost the first game to Erwin L'Ami but recovered in a must win game two before winning the blitz (5m+2spm) tie-breaks 1.5-0.5. He beat Eric Van den Doel 1.5-0.5 in the semi-finals. His opponent in the final was another surprise, 9th seed 24-year-old Liam Vrolijk. The two classical games were drawn before Tiviakov won the two blitz games to take the title.

Netherland Championships 2026 - Games and Results

Mark Crowther — Sat Jul 11 17:59:00 2026

The Netherland Championships took place in Amsterdam Sat 4th to Sat 11th Jul 2026. The event was a KO with both an open and women's event. Sergei Tiviakov won his fourth title defeating Liam Vrolijk in the final after a tie-break. Machteld Van Foreest beat Anna-Maja Kazarian 2-0 in the final.

KazChess Masters 2026 - Games and Results

Mark Crowther — Wed Jul 8 19:38:00 2026

The KazChess Masters took place Tue 30th Jun to Wed 8th Jul 2026 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Alexey Sarana edged out Alexander Donchenko on tie-break after both scored 6/9. Igor Kovalenko finished half a point behind.

GCT Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia 2026 - Games and Results

Mark Crowther — Sun Jul 5 22:55:00 2026

The GCT Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia took place in Zagreb 1st to 5th July 2026. Players: Vincent Keymer, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Jorden Van Foreest, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Ivan Saric, Bogdan-Daniel Deac and Gukesh Dommaraju.

Alrizeza Firouzja won an Armageddon Tie-break against Nodirbek Abdusattorov after they tied the combined standings and a two game rapid tie-break match.