r/Chess

Blitz Titled Arena (11th July 2026) - Live Discussion Thread

2026-07-11T15:56:11+00:00

The Titled Arena is Lichess' official tournament for titled players, held twice a month.

Follow the games here: Lichess
Time: 19:00-⁠21:00 UTC
Format: 3+0 Arena (see the Lichess Arena FAQ)
Players: Only titled players can participate
Prize Pool: $1,000

The Warm-up Arena at 18:00 UTC is open to everyone.

submitted by /u/AAArmstark
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Weekly Discussion & Tournament Thread Index - July 06, 2026 [Mod Applications Welcome]

2026-07-06T04:00:56+00:00

r/chess Weekly Discussion Thread

You are welcome to ask here all kinds of chess-related questions that don't warrant their own post. You can also discuss or ask questions about upcoming tournaments that don't have their own thread yet.

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OPEN CALL for new moderators! Interested in: creating event posts, hosting AMAs, making sure only the finest queen sacrifice puzzles make the front page? Apply Now!

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Interested in making threads for tournaments, but don't know where to start? Our Event Template page is a great way to get the basic layout.

An alternative would be to start a subthread directly in the weekly thread.

Announcements

REWORK OF r/chess RULES

UPDATED Oct 30th 2025 - Mod Announcement: New temporary measures to help manage the sub

Recent AMAs

Active Tournament Threads

DATES	EVENT
-	-

Other Active Tournaments Web Links

DATES	EVENT
July 4-11	Dutch Championship 2026

Upcoming Tournament Schedule

DATES	EVENT	NOTABLE PLAYERS
July 11-24	Biel Chess Festival 2026	Aronian, Liem Le, Erdogmus, Bluebaum
July 16-23	Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters 2026	Gukesh, Abdusattorov, Erigaisi, Firouzja, Hans
Aug 2-6	Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz 2026	Caruana, Sindarov, Keymer, So, Pragg
Aug 10-20	Sinquefield Cup 2026	Caruana, Sindarov, Giri, So, Pragg
Aug 11-15	Esports World Cup 2026	Carlsen, Nakamura, Abdusattorov, Erigaisi
Sept 2-13	Global Chess League 2026	Carlsen, Anand, Sindarov, Firouzja

Recently Completed Tournaments

DATES	EVENT	WINNER
July 3-5	2026 Naroditsky Memorial Rapid and Blitz	Javokhir Sindarov
July 1-5	2026 Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia	Alireza Firouzja
June 24-27	2026 Bullet Chess Championship	Nihal Sarin
June 17-21	2026 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Team Chess Championships	Dragon Chilling
June 7-15	2026 UzChess Cup	Mukhiddin Madaminov
May 25 - June 5	2026 Norway Chess	Praggnanandhaa R & Bibisara Assaubayeva
May 14-23	2026 Super Chess Classic Romania	Vincent Keymer
May 5-9	2026 Super Rapid & Blitz Poland	Hans Niemann
May 1-7	2026 TePe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament	Magnus Carlsen
Mar 29 - Apr 15	2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament	Javokhir Sindarov & Vaishali Rameshbabu
Mar 2-12	2026 American Cup	Wesley So & Alice Lee
Feb 25 - Mar 6	2026 Prague Masters	Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Feb 13-15	2026 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship	Magnus Carlsen
Jan 16 - Feb 1	2026 Tata Steel Chess Masters	Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Jan 7-11	2026 Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz	Rapid: Nihal Sarin & Kateryna Lagno; Blitz: Wesley So & Carissa Yip

Some links where to find a list of current (or just completed) tournaments

Other Notable Threads

Coach a Player - Recent Threads

Community Content

Here we'd love to highlight community content to show our appreciation for the energy spent. Content like Game analysis, info-graphics, etc., and we'd love to hear from you what kind of content you'd like to see as well.

Want to post your game to r/chess? - for people who want to solicit feedback on their games

Advice to people asking for advice - for people who want to ask about how to improve

submitted by /u/events_team
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Chess.com quietly removing advanced stats from Platinum members is just too much im moving to Lichess once my membership runs out.

2026-07-11T13:26:43+00:00

submitted by /u/JamesHayes101
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Levon Aronian and a lesson in Chess Etiquette

2026-07-11T13:17:03+00:00

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAXS_tPKzwA&list=LL&index=1

submitted by /u/FirstEfficiency7386
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Can you spot the tactic? (Black went on to lose the game)

2026-07-11T15:50:13+00:00

Game Link: https://www.chess.com/events/2026-biel-masters-chess-960/04/Erdogmus_Yagiz_Kaan-Aronian_Levon

submitted by /u/FirstEfficiency7386
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Happens to best of us

2026-07-11T18:03:00+00:00

This happened during Saturday bullet brawl 😭

submitted by /u/Educational-Cell7414
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If the FIFA World Cup were a Chess Tournament

2026-07-11T17:59:22+00:00

As the World Cup gets closer to the end, I couldn't help but wonder what it would look like if we used Chess Teams instead.

So, I did it properly. Each of the 48 qualified nations gets a team of its top 4 active players by live classical rating, as of Friday morning. I used the same groups as the real draw and the same knockout bracket. A "match" is a 4-board team match, Olympiad-style, and every board is decided using FIDE's actual expected-score table. Tied knockout matches go to Armageddon on board one. Then I ran the whole tournament 10,000 times.

The full field, ranked by team strength (top 4 average)

#	Team	Group	Avg	Board one
1	USA	D	2770	Caruana (2792)
2	Uzbekistan	K	2723	Sindarov (2777)
3	Germany	E	2689	Keymer (2767)
4	Netherlands	F	2685	Giri (2764)
5	France	I	2677	Firouzja (2749)
6	Norway	I	2674	Carlsen (2823)
7	Iran	G	2659	Tabatabaei (2721)
8	England	L	2648	Vitiugov (2666)
9	Spain	H	2636	Vallejo Pons (2644)
10	Türkiye	D	2629	Erdogmus (2713)
11	Czechia	A	2593	Nguyen (2633)
12	Croatia	L	2591	Saric (2623)
13	Austria	J	2590	Alekseenko (2656)
14	Brazil	C	2569	Leitao (2584)
15	Argentina	J	2559	Flores (2582)
16	Switzerland	B	2548	Milov (2579)
17	Sweden	F	2545	Grandelius (2603)
18	Mexico	A	2541	Martinez Alcantara (2650)
19	Belgium	G	2537	Dardha (2600)
20	Australia	D	2531	Cheng (2574)
21	Egypt	G	2526	Amin (2609)
22	Bosnia and Herzegovina	B	2519	Predojevic (2555)
23	Paraguay	D	2513	Bachmann (2586)
24	Canada	B	2500	Rodrigue-Lemieux (2534)
25	Colombia	K	2497	Cardoso (2508)
26	Portugal	K	2468	Ferreira (2525)
27	Uruguay	H	2434	Meier (2612)
28	Scotland	C	2430	Turner (2460)
29	Algeria	J	2426	Bellahcene (2504)
30	Morocco	C	2410	Hamdouchi (2496)
31	South Africa	A	2365	Steel (2408)
32	New Zealand	G	2352	Xie (2392)
33	Ecuador	E	2352	Noboa Silva (2403)
34	Tunisia	F	2347	Njili (2406)
35	Japan	F	2344	Tran (2399)
36	South Korea	A	2308	Lee (2408)
37	Panama	L	2249	Sanchez Alvarez (2345)
38	Jordan	J	2228	Issa (2320)
39	Iraq	I	2194	Zozek (2241)
40	Cape Verde	H	2123	Ortega Amarelle (2379)
41	Curaçao	E	2075	Vos (2216)
42	Haiti	C	2052	Etienne (2131)
43	Ivory Coast	E	2050	De Gondo (2071)
44	Saudi Arabia	H	2035	Alrehaili (2106)
45	Ghana	L	1965	Amoako (1983)
46	Qatar	B	1950	Aziz (2256)
47	Senegal	I	1915	Ba (1957)
48	DR Congo	K	1775	Makuwa Mbayo (1775)

Some interesting tidbits:

Uzbekistan finished last in the real Group K with zero points. Here they're the #2 team on the planet and win 19% of the time. Sindarov and Abdusattorov on the top two boards is just not fair to anybody. Khusanov finally gets some help.
Norway is having a great tournament in both universes: real-life quarterfinalists, and #6 here.
Argentina, the defending champions, are still alive in the real tournament. In this version they're 15th, fielding four extremely respectable GMs mostly in their 40s. Hopefully there's no FIDE arbiter controversies.
DR Congo qualified for their first World Cup ever and has exactly one FIDE-rated player. He plays board one at 1775 and boards two through four are forfeits.
Group I (France and Norway) is the group of death in both universes, and the only group that put two teams into the real quarterfinals. France is already through to the semis in the real WC.

Who actually wins?

Championship odds across 10,000 simulations:

Team	Wins it
USA	31.6%
Uzbekistan	19.0%
Germany	11.3%
Netherlands	10.6%
Norway	8.7%
France	6.2%
Iran	3.7%
England	2.8%
Spain	1.6%
Türkiye	1.4%

The United States of course has the best odds assuming the top players actually play and are in form. Realistically I think Uzbekistan is the team to beat.

And if we skip the simulations and let the better side win every board: the Netherlands eliminates Brazil in the round of 16, Norway ends France's run in an all-Group-I rematch (Carlsen vs Firouzja on board one), then Norway knocks out England in the quarterfinal. The semis are Germany vs Norway and USA vs Uzbekistan, and the USA beats Germany in the final.

Norway vs England is an actual World Cup quarterfinal today. The simulation produced that on its own. It also has England winning Group L and France and Norway both surviving the round of 16, all of which really happened. If Norway wins today, I am taking partial credit.

submitted by /u/RadarChess
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Cairns Cup 2026 10 player field announced. Date of event: 08th August to 21st August 2026.

2026-07-11T05:27:58+00:00

Source: https://saintlouischessclub.org/news-insights-press/worlds-top-women-chess-field-announced-for-2026-cairns-cup-in-saint-louis/

submitted by /u/EvenCoyote6317
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In the ongoing WSCC 2026 - Rose Atwell was visibly emotional as she lost 14-1 vs. Divya Deshmukh | Unable to win a single game against her opponent

2026-07-10T16:01:45+00:00

Event Link: https://www.chess.com/events/2026-womens-speed-chess-championship/results

submitted by /u/FirstEfficiency7386
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Lichess has many great features that help you to improve at chess. Which ones do you use?

2026-07-11T15:13:44+00:00

Usually I do the "puzzle rush" type puzzles (puzzle storm/streak) because chess.com offers only one free per day. Which features do you find helpful to you for improving at chess?

submitted by /u/Traditional_One_5957
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Almost resigned but then saw something

2026-07-10T21:35:22+00:00

3+0

submitted by /u/MrEdwL
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White mates in 1 😏

2026-07-10T14:38:01+00:00

submitted by /u/Lily_was_bored
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When your opponent blindly develops (been there many times, though rarely on the right side)

2026-07-11T15:46:28+00:00

3+0

submitted by /u/MrEdwL
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How to improve and understand analysis

2026-07-11T13:07:25+00:00

So I am a teenager who wants to improve in chess but don't have money to spend on it. I heed advice of others and always look over analysis of games. There is just a small issue, I don't understand analysis I can't use chess.com as it only gives only one analysis per day and the lichess stockfish's ideas I have never really understood. I am 1600 rapid lichess, please suggest what else can I do to improve

submitted by /u/Neat_Zucchini1481
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White to play and win (By the Platov brothers)

2026-07-11T10:07:09+00:00

submitted by /u/Either-Case-5930
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That annoying skewer tactic always looming.White to play and win(By Neishtadt)

2026-07-11T17:18:50+00:00

Hint: Underpromotion

submitted by /u/Either-Case-5930
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White to play and win (By Gunst)

2026-07-11T13:27:09+00:00

submitted by /u/Either-Case-5930
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Bauhaus Chess Set by Josef Hartwig, 1924

2026-07-11T01:05:01+00:00

submitted by /u/Lobsterhasspoken
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How do i stop being inconsistent with my play

2026-07-11T10:48:25+00:00

I am 14 years old and 1827 on chess.com and i am trying to get into tournament play but im worried i will be inconsistent since my play varies alot. Sometimes i play with 90+ accuracy and sometimes i play like im 1400 again. Im worried that my tournaments will land on my low accuracy days and i want to stop this inconsistency. How can i do this?

submitted by /u/Imnotbeb
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Chess.com Game Review

2026-07-11T14:09:40+00:00

Does anyone else feel like chess.com latest update to Game Review is so much worse? Computer suggested best moves are not displayed by default, asking for Best move in the control panel frequently provides opponent's best move rather than mine. Took a perfect utility and broke it imo

submitted by /u/meansryan
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When playing blindfolded, how do you visualize the board? And what orientation do you see it in?

2026-07-11T13:28:30+00:00

I’ve heard some people say that when they visualize a board in their head, some see it as a flat 2D position like in online, and others see it in 3D like in OTB. As well as this, I’ve heard people say they only visualize from whites perspective with the white pieces on the bottom, regardless if they’re playing black or white. For those who can play blindfolded, what’s your preference?

submitted by /u/RedBaron812
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It was a close game

2026-07-11T17:56:26+00:00

https://preview.redd.it/0hrj67333nch1.png?width=449&format=png&auto=webp&s=676972e04d6c259cd2fd3a6bfe3dff6ee27aa4cc

Against zack

submitted by /u/TaroRevolutionary690
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Doesn't look like mate, but it's mate in 3

2026-07-11T00:50:47+00:00

Not a hard mate to find, it just doesn't feel like mate at first glance until you see it.

submitted by /u/EdgeRevolutionary913
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How to force your opponent to checkmate you

2026-07-11T16:27:09+00:00

Recently I watched a Levy video where he said he couldn’t get Chess.com’s bot Zack to beat him. I just wanted to point out that you can easily force the setup in the first picture and from that position you can easily force the bot to checkmate you as shown in the second picture.

submitted by /u/cgieseking
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Find the only defence that black has

2026-07-11T16:07:02+00:00

(He took the queen which is a blunder, I still lost the game because I made this move during a tilt)

submitted by /u/Affectionate_Echo631
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