Luke McShane

England’s 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan has become the youngest girl in history to qualify for the international master (IM) title, breaking Judit Polgar’s record which had stood for 38 years. Her development is keeping pace with the absolute best in the world; Gukesh Dommaraju and Javokhir Sindarov, whose world championship match begins in November, both earned their IM title a few months before their 12th birthdays. Her achievement comes a month after she qualified for the women’s grandmaster title (WGM), playing on top board for England’s women’s team at the Olympiad in Samarkand. The next major milestone is the grandmaster (GM) title.

Six seconds! That’s how long Radjabov had to choose his next move in the diagram below, from an online rapid game in 2021. Plausible options are 1 Kd3, 1 Kd2 and 1 Kc3, but two of these lose by force. Radjabov picked a dud: Teimour Radjabov-Hikaru Nakamura Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Finals 2021 48 Kd2? Ke5! The only winning move. 49 Kd3 Kd5 White resigns, because he is in zugzwang – any move allows Black’s king a decisive intrusion. Only 50 Kc3 prevents Kd5-c4, but then 50…Ke4 51 Kd2 Kf3 mops up the kingside. The immediate 48 Kd3 direct also loses to Kd5!, reaching the game’s final position one move faster. The only saving move in the diagram is 48 Kc3! Then 48…Kd5 49 Kd3! Ke5 50 Kd2! Ke4 51 Ke2! blocks the Black king and maintains the balance.

Chess combinations are usually credited to ineffable flair, the gift of great players like Alekhine and Tal. There is truth in that, but for the spectator, beauty can also be a numbers game: watch enough games and brilliancies are bound to turn up. The Olympiad in Samarkand was a treat on that score. With 206 teams in the Open section and 189 in the Women’s event, there were around 8,500 games over 11 rounds, and plenty of dazzling finishes. Few players could make a combination look as organic as Wesley So does in the following game. He follows an ambitious pawn sacrifice with energetic play, then crowns it with a stunning queen sacrifice.

A chess game can run you ragged in myriad ways, but in my experience the most exacting ingredient is neither the length of the game nor the strength of the opposition. Rather, it’s the sensation of walking a tightrope, knowing that even a minor misstep can make the difference between winning and losing. I played one such game for England at the recent Olympiad in Samarkand. Mine was the last to finish in a hard-fought match against Georgia, and I was heartened by fighting back from the brink of defeat in the early middlegame. But with less than a minute on the clock, I was struggling to fathom the position below, where the d7-pawn is useful but firmly blockaded, while the h3-pawn looks nimble. My opponent played the move which both frightened and excited me.

‘O’zbekiston’, they chanted, as I weaved my way through the scrum of fans and cameramen. The host nation, Uzbekistan, had just won gold at the 46th chess Olympiad, held in Samarkand. It was clear from the start that their team, led by Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Javokhir Sindarov (both in the world’s top ten) was capable of winning. They had already won at the Chennai Olympiad in 2022, when their players were far less experienced. But to play at home, and overcome fierce competition from top seeds USA, and second seeds India (the winners in Budapest 2024), was a huge challenge. The pivotal moment, at least in hindsight, occurred in the sixth-round match between Uzbekistan and India. Nihal had played a strong game, but in the diagram position his last move, 37…Nd6-f5?

Garry Kasparov’s scintillating victory against Veselin Topalov at the 1999 Wijk aan Zee tournament is often cited as the most brilliant game ever played. And the final game of Kasparov’s professional career was a loss against the same opponent in the last round of the Linares tournament of 2005. Kasparov, already assured of tournament victory and perhaps preoccupied by his imminent retirement, lost with little fight, and Topalov shared first place in the tournament. Later that year, Topalov won the Fide World Championship tournament in San Luis, Argentina. Clutch Chess: The Legends this month was a nostalgic showcase for these two greats, who played an exhibition match at the St Louis Chess Club earlier in September.

The classical (slow) world championship remains the single most prestigious title in chess, but the events drawing new sponsorship to the game skew heavily towards rapid and blitz time controls. They are seen as more fan-friendly, and Magnus Carlsen’s stated preference for those faster events has had a strong influence too. But organisers wishing to fashion an identity for their new events have experimented with various new formats, and team events have become a popular choice, such as the World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships, and the Esports World Cup (which also has a team element). Though the games are played between individuals, the team context amplifies the significance of each game.

Elon Musk enjoys winding up chess players. In 2022, he posted on X that chess is ‘too simple to be useful in real life’, noting ‘a mere 8 by 8 grid, no fog of war, no technology tree, no random map or spawn position, only 2 players, both sides exact same pieces, etc. Polytopia addresses these limitations.’ Facetious, of course, but still some took umbrage at a perceived slur on the game. Could chess ever be solved? Last week, Musk weighed in on X to a viral post about the game’s complexity, countering that the number of non-stupid moves is ‘tiny’ and that the game would one day be ‘fully solved’. Chess.com’s account shot back with two words: ‘skill issue’ – internet shorthand for ‘You’re just not good enough.

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa continued his formidable run of form by taking first place, and a $200,000 first prize, at the Grand Chess Tour Finals, held in St Louis in late August. Earlier in 2026, the 21-year-old Indian grandmaster won Norway Chess, and dominated the St Louis Rapid and Blitz, which he won with a round to spare. Just a few days later he was back in action at the Sinquefield Cup, also held in St Louis, where he tied for first place with Wesley So, only to miss out in the tiebreak. Those stellar results won him a place in the quadrangular Grand Chess Tour Finals, alongside Caruana, So and Keymer.     The matches were a mixture of classical (slow), rapid and blitz tiebreaks, with points weighted towards the slower time controls.

For the third time in his career, Wesley So has won the elite Sinquefield Cup tournament in St Louis, the fifth and final leg of the Grand Chess Tour. He got off to a strong start, with an early win against Jorden Van Foreest who botched a drawn rook endgame, and followed that by beating tournament favourite Caruana, in the superb counterattacking game shown below. Fabiano Caruana-Wesley So Sinquefield Cup, August 2026 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 a3 Bxc3+ 5 bxc3 c5 6 f3 Nc6 7 e4 d6 8 Ne2 O-O 9 Ng3 b6 10 Be2 Ba6 11 O-O Rc8 12 f4 cxd4 13 cxd4 Na5 14 f5 h6 (see diagram)  15 e5 After the queen exchange, Black’s position becomes easier to play. 15 Rf4!? was worth considering, to swing the rook over to h4 with an attack.