Luke McShane

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.

Played on computer screens at a fast pace, chess is a natural fit for the Esports World Cup. For the second year running, it took its place alongside dozens of major computer games, and Magnus Carlsen, who won last year’s event in Riyadh, was back to defend his title in Paris earlier this month. The Norwegian was undefeated throughout the event, and took home $250,000 by defeating 19-year-old Denis Lazavik, from Belarus, in the final, winning both sets 3-1. Lazavik’s presence in the final (who won $190,000 for second place) was itself a sign of how much the game has changed. He plays very little classical (slow) chess, where he is still ranked outside the world’s top 100, but is one of a growing band of players to make their mark through consistent excellence in online play.

When you’re in contention for tournament victory, the final day of a chess tournament is knotted with tension, knowing that even a brief lapse of concentration can squander a week or two of effort. The nerves splinter your sleep, and then the game usually begins early, because the organisers need time to pack up afterwards. Over the years, I’ve met with Triumph and Disaster, but one of the more painful memories was the final round of the British Championships in 2002, where, as an 18-year-old, I blew a promising position against the Indian grandmaster R.B. Ramesh, who therefore won the event outright. Last Sunday, 24 years after that debacle, I faced another pivotal final round at the British Championships, held on the campus of Warwick University.

On 24 July 2026, Arkady Dvorkovich announced that he was voluntarily suspending his duties as president of Fide, the international federation. Dvorkovich is a former deputy prime minister of Russia, so when he was named in the EU’s 21st sanctions package, there was little room for manoeuvre. Rather than let the sanctions paralyse the federation’s operations, he stepped back ‘with immediate effect’, handing over to deputy president Viswanathan Anand, the five-time world champion. This is not the first time Fide has found itself in this position.