r/Chess

Chess960 Titled Arena (12th September 2026) - Live Discussion Thread

2026-09-12T16:45:30+00:00

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

Follow the games here: Lichess
Time: 19:00-⁠22:00 UTC
Format: 3+2 Chess960 Arena (see the Lichess Arena FAQ)
Prize pool: $1,000
Players:
- GM David Navara
- GM Oleksandr Bortnyk
- GM José Martínez
- GM Brandon Jacobson
- IM Renato Terry
- ... and many other titled players!

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 - September 07, 2026 [Mod Applications Welcome]

2026-09-07T04:01:03+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
Sept 5-13	2026 Tech Mahindra Global Chess League

Other Active Tournaments Web Links

DATES	EVENT
-	-

Upcoming Tournament Schedule

DATES	EVENT	NOTABLE PLAYERS
Sept 16-27	FIDE Chess Olympiad 2026	Caruana, Sindarov, Keymer, Erigaisi, Giri
Nov 10-20	Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot 2026	Carlsen, Caruana, Firouzja, Praggnanandhaa
Nov 24 - Dec 12	FIDE World Chess Championship 2026	Gukesh, Sindarov

Recently Completed Tournaments

DATES	EVENT	WINNER
Aug 22-27	2026 Grand Chess Tour Finals	Praggnanandhaa R
Aug 10-19	2026 Sinquefield Cup & Cairns Cup	Wesley So & Tan Zhongyi
Aug 11-15	2026 Esports World Cup	Magnus Carlsen
Aug 2-6	2026 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz	Praggnanandhaa R
July 16-22	2026 Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters	Alireza Firouzja
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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I was Daniel Naroditsky's YouTube editor and a very close friend. AMA

2026-09-12T23:15:06+00:00

https://preview.redd.it/ad9txqlg96ph1.jpg?width=1063&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=91cb8b617679ce71860f2cfba9bfb6476326a505

I will try to reply to everyone as best as I can. I don't want to encourage baseless speculation but I miss my friend very much and do want to talk about him and give some insights or other information you might be wondering about.

As a side note since Daniels passing the channel was stripped away from me after a legal battle with the estate and so I no longer have any connection to the channel that is still running. Having said that if anyone wants to help me with another job that would be crazy cool. I'm currently remodeling houses which is very hot and hard work lol.

submitted by /u/clyders3
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Magnus Carlsen on Pragg’s playing style...

2026-09-12T18:13:33+00:00

https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/chess/im-a-fan-love-watching-his-chess-magnus-carlsen-on-praggnanandhaa-10873317/

submitted by /u/Odd_Conference_4994
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Magnus' ranking of these 5 players as of now.

2026-09-12T16:58:43+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elCS-j_ZH_Y

submitted by /u/Odd_Conference_4994
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Magnus names Firouzja, Nakamura, Caruana, Ivanchuk, Morozevich, and Aronian as his historically trickiest opponents

2026-09-12T17:50:21+00:00

Also Kramnik

submitted by /u/Affectionate_Hat3329
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Alireza Firouzja takes down Magnus Carlsen in the final league game of GCL Season 4

2026-09-12T12:20:40+00:00

Game Links: Chess.com | Lichess.org

submitted by /u/CtrlShiftAbhi
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Nihal loses on time from a winning position in a insane time scramble vs Pranesh as their team (Sindarov's team) fail to make it to the finals of GCL 26

2026-09-12T15:28:31+00:00

Sindarov beat MVL with black... But his team face 3 other losses... and settles for a 3rd place match.

submitted by /u/rio_ARC
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Are there any left handed grandmasters?

2026-09-13T00:36:32+00:00

Mildly related to chess. The only one I can think of is Hikaru but he only uses his left hand to write the moves down

submitted by /u/Flaky_Bottle_6902
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“Mishra has an abundance of opportunities even without sponsorships... He plays the US Championship which has a very attractive prize fund. He plays the US Junior Championship, the American Cup…We have a great chess scene.“- Fabiano Caruana

2026-09-12T02:03:16+00:00

“I understand that the first desire, the first priority of a chess player is to be able to continue their chess career, especially at a young age, with adequate coaching to not have to always be crunched for money.
From Mishra’s point of view, as a young American player, maybe he doesn’t get any support in terms of sponsorships. I don’t know, of course, but I’ll take his word for that. But there’s still an abundance of opportunities even without that.
And just off the top of my head, he plays the US Championship which has a very attractive prize fund. He plays the US Junior Championship which actually has a quite attractive prize fund. And he maybe even has a great equity because he’s one of the favorites along with Andy Woodward to win it. There’s also the American Cup, which he plays consistently.
And based on those three tournaments, it’s of course hard to win one of them, not to mention all of them, but if you theoretically win all of them, you’re making over 100 grand just based on those three tournaments.
We could theoretically have the same thing as in India or Uzbekistan in the US. We do have the economy for it, but we don’t have the level of interest. We’re not football. We’re not basketball. That’s just the reality.
We have a great chess scene. But true, you don’t have the money of India if that’s what you’re aspiring to. If you’re expecting to immediately from your teenage years just get half a million dollars a year in corporate sponsorship. Well, it’s unlikely.
If you compare it to college sports in the US… I mean, I don’t know how many people are watching college basketball or college football, but it is probably millions of people. And people who watch the US Junior’s Chess Championship is probably like a thousand.
So, it really is ‘apples and oranges’.”

submitted by /u/Affectionate_Hat3329
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Highest ever rankings by age (updated with 1-Sep-2026 ratings)

2026-09-12T23:44:38+00:00

youngest #1: M Carlsen #1 at 19 years, 32 days on 1-Jan-2010 (rating 2810) youngest #2: A Firouzja #2 at 18 years, 166 days on 1-Dec-2021 (rating 2804) youngest #3: M Carlsen #3 at 18 years, 122 days on 1-Apr-2009 (rating 2770) youngest #4: M Carlsen #4 at 17 years, 306 days on 1-Oct-2008 (rating 2786) youngest #7 or better: M Carlsen #5 at 17 years, 123 days on 1-Apr-2008 (rating 2765) youngest #20 or better: G Kamsky #8 at 16 years, 29 days on 1-Jul-1990 (rating 2650) youngest #25 or better: M Carlsen #21 at 15 years, 305 days on 1-Oct-2006 (rating 2698) youngest #26: Y Erdogmus #26 at 15 years, 90 days on 1-Sep-2026 (rating 2716) youngest #27: Y Erdogmus #27 at 15 years, 59 days on 1-Aug-2026 (rating 2716) youngest #28: Y Erdogmus #28 at 15 years, 28 days on 1-Jul-2026 (rating 2713) youngest #31 or better: Y Erdogmus #29 at 14 years, 363 days on 1-Jun-2026 (rating 2713) youngest #36 or better: Y Erdogmus #32 at 14 years, 332 days on 1-May-2026 (rating 2708) youngest #46 or better: Y Erdogmus #37 at 14 years, 271 days on 1-Mar-2026 (rating 2687) youngest #54 or better: Y Erdogmus #47 at 14 years, 243 days on 1-Feb-2026 (rating 2669) youngest #100 or better: J Polgar #55 at 12 years, 162 days on 1-Jan-1989 (rating 2555)

(This is my own work, so there is the possibility of errors. But I think it's correct!)

submitted by /u/rockyssss
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Individual player stats from GCL League Stage

2026-09-12T15:48:24+00:00

Vishy will end the tournament without a single win, while Divya and Sara Khadem will have two more chances tomorrow to secure their first win. Harika is the only undefeated player left in the tournament.

Sindarov, Polina, Stavroula, and Kosteniuk each have scored 20 game points so far, the highest in the tournament.

Ganges Grandmasters will play Alpine APL Pipers in the finals tomorrow, while FYERS American Gambits will play CheQ Mumba Masters in the 3rd place playoff.

submitted by /u/CtrlShiftAbhi
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Alireza beats Magnus with the black pieces, leading his team to victory on the final group stage day at GCL 2026📍

2026-09-12T12:28:46+00:00

submitted by /u/Arc_bong
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"I do not deserve this 'player of the match [trophy]' as much as the man who won us the match," says Magnus Carlsen as he gives his trophy to Vidit Gujrathi. 🤍

2026-09-11T14:16:43+00:00

submitted by /u/rio_ARC
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The most likely 6 final slots for Total Chess World Championship 2026

2026-09-12T22:05:12+00:00

Now that the September 1 deadline has passed, the final six players for November's Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot in Budapest are officially locked.

Because the three FIDE Open Circuit slots were already claimed by Haik Martirosyan, Andrew Hong, and Ian Nepomniachtchi, all six remaining spots in the 24 player field fall to the FIDE Circuit 2026-2027 replacement pathway.

If there are no major changes (like players withdraw in the last minutes or turned down the invitation), the final 6 slots will mostly likely be:

Jorden van Foreest (13th on the Circuit — 24.58 pts)
Mukhiddin Madaminov (14th on the Circuit — 22.23 pts)
Abhimanyu Mishra (15th on the Circuit — 22.17 pts)
Nihal Sarin (16th on the Circuit — 21.76 pts)
Aravindh Chithambaram (17th on the Circuit — 20.63 pts)
Mahammad Muradli (20th on the Circuit — 19.61 pts) (skipping #18 Anish Giri and #19 Magnus Carlsen, who are already qualified)

If nothing changes, then Mishra has qualified the tournament in the last minute, when he won the Chess Slovak Open 2026 in the last week of August 2026 and earned himself 8.96 points. His win completely flipped the Circuit ranking, jumping him into the qualifying spots and ironically pushing Andy Woodward (who now ranks 21st on the Circuit) out of the tournament at the last second.

What do you think about the final 6? For me, Nihal Sarin is arguably one of the best speed-chess players on the planet, and having him into a hybrid Fast Classical / Rapid / Blitz format is going to be incredible to watch.

submitted by /u/ghostmaster93
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Highest rating by age 15 (with qualifications)

2026-09-12T10:00:03+00:00

Source (not mine): https://fideratings.com/stats?stat=age_rating_records

how I read the list:

The highest rating that players reached around their 15th year. The check is approximate (because lists aren't released daily). Take Magnus, born in Nov 1990. Then all the lists until 1990 + 15 are considered, hence also those where he was 15 and counting.

Some observations:

Ratings inflate/deflate, so the list is mostly filled with people active after 2000. The legends of the past are unlikely to be at the top.
Magnus was in Karjakin's shadow for a while apparently, and he lost rating between 13 and 14.

submitted by /u/pier4r
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Discussion: When do you take on D4? Caro-Kann and French

2026-09-13T01:01:53+00:00

I know the engine gives pretty equal footing to a few moves for black here. It feels like every course I take gives a different opinion on when to take on d4.

I typically delay. I play Nc6 first. Maybe because I’m giving my opponent the chance to take on c5 and give me some free development on the dark squared bishop, but it seems like I can take there anytime.

I’m just interested if anyone has specific rulesets they follow in these types of positions that give them a good plan here.

submitted by /u/Weltal327
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Following Chess is hard

2026-09-12T13:36:45+00:00

Before take take take went down the playing chess route, it was purely ment for following chess and so good at that, but even since they took that feature away i find it hard to keep in touch with the chess world especially cause i live is Australia. is there any app that does a similar that to what take take take used to do???

submitted by /u/pirlonumber21
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“[Gukesh] has shown previously in 2024 that when things click, he has the potential to play at an extremely high level. I don’t think a lot of people believe that he will do it now, but I think it’s even more of an interesting challenge for him to try and get back to that.” -Magnus Carlsen

2026-09-11T16:36:15+00:00

“The word ‘defend’ is really not a good place to begin, because in terms of how Gukesh has played for the last couple of years, he should not be in a position where he has to defend anything. He should be in a position where he has everything to gain.
He has shown previously in 2024 that when things click, he has the potential to play at an extremely high level. I don’t think a lot of people believe that he will do it now, but I think it’s even more of an interesting challenge for him to try and get back to that.
Chess is a highly psychological game, so it probably won’t take a lot to potentially place some doubts in Sindarov’s mind and some confidence for Gukesh.
Gukesh has shown that his ceiling is on par or better than Sindarov. If Sindarov is ahead early on, it’s probably very, very bad news for Gukesh. If Gukesh is ahead early on, he automatically becomes a significant favourite.
That’s how these matches work.”

submitted by /u/Affectionate_Hat3329
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Black just blundered, find the sequence that wins a piece

2026-09-12T19:42:06+00:00

submitted by /u/LazyN00bTrader
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White to play and win (By Kalandadze)

2026-09-12T17:31:32+00:00

submitted by /u/Either-Case-5930
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Garry Kasparov takes down Veselin Topalov in Game 4 of Clutch Chess 2026

2026-09-11T21:02:55+00:00

Game Links: Chess.com | Lichess.org

submitted by /u/CtrlShiftAbhi
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You'll never guess the winning move in this position for White

2026-09-11T19:07:38+00:00

Only 1 move wins here for white, really curious study like position from a game of mine.

submitted by /u/JustinOdisho
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Vidit clutches with a win over Dubov as APL Pipers secure a close win (9-7) , Magnus won the icon board match vs Sindarov 📍

2026-09-11T14:02:20+00:00

submitted by /u/rio_ARC
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Book recommendations to study with a board

2026-09-12T12:01:05+00:00

I currently use chessable a lot and am going over 1001 chess exercises for beginners.

But to reduce screen time, I want to use my physical board to study as well. Probably by using some books on strategy/middlegames.

Ive also read to study endgames before middlegames so maybe I should do that?

I’m rated 1650 on lichess rapid. My openings are fine, middlegames are my weakest point (I’ll reach it and be unsure of what to do), while I know a bit of endgames they are still very weak.

When looking at Lichess insights middlegames are slightly worse than endgames considering accuracy, average centipawn loss and tactical awareness. Both are a lot worse than my openings.

Currently considering these books but open to suggestions. What do you think is the best fit and most enjoyable to study with a physical board?

The Amateurs Mind by Silman (can’t figure out if this one works OTB)
Logical Chess: Move by Move by Chernev (might be too dated?)
Understanding Chess Move by Move by Nunn (might be too difficult for me?)
Silman's Complete Endgame Course (if I should focus on endgames before middlegames and it works OTB?)
The life and games of Mikhail Tal (I’ll probably get this anyway for pure enjoyment and appreciation of Tal)

submitted by /u/krissow
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