Luke McShane

Gukesh Dommaraju, the 20-year-old world champion from India, is in crisis. Since winning the title by defeating Ding Liren in 2024, he has suffered a catastrophic slump in form. His latest setback, at the Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters tournament, saw him finish in clear last place, just as he did at the elite Norway Chess event in June. Gukesh will defend his title in a match which is provisionally scheduled to begin in November. He has plummeted to 30th place on the live rating list, barely above the symbolic 2700 level. His Uzbek challenger Javokhir Sindarov currently sits at fourth place, making him a clear favourite.

Eleven-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan is one of the world’s brightest talents in her age group. A recent jump in her international rating saw her secure the Fide Master title – an important milestone – and in April she became England’s top-rated female player (of any age). She is beginning to collect scalps from grandmaster opposition, including the former women’s world champion Mariya Muzychuk, whom she defeated in a classical game at the European Club Cup in October 2025.    Last week, she got off to a flying start at the Dole Open in Aix-en-Provence. Facing a strong French grandmaster in the first round, Sivanandan was under pressure, but turned the tables thanks to a sharp tactical eye.

The inaugural Daniel Naroditsky Memorial Rapid and Blitz took place early in July in Charlotte, North Carolina. Organised by the Charlotte Chess Center Foundation, where Naroditsky had served as resident grandmaster, the event honoured the popular streamer and commentator, known to fans as ‘Danya’, who died in October aged 29. Rapid and blitz were fitting formats, as Naroditsky was one of the world’s top blitz specialists, particularly in online play. A stellar field included Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So, as well as the Candidates winner Javokhir Sindarov. Sindarov took first place in both disciplines, and paid tribute to Naroditsky, describing him as the ‘kindest person in chess’.

Alireza Firouzja jokingly described the final day of the Super Rapid and Blitz, held in Croatia earlier this month, as the ‘worst of his life’ – and yet somehow he won the tournament anyway. The rapid event was held over the first three days, which left Firouzja and Praggnanandhaa in joint first place, and an impressive game from the latter is shown below. Firouzja followed that up with a crushing 8/9 score on the first day of blitz chess, building up a lead which looked unassailable. But his feeble start of 2/7 on the final day put the tournament win in jeopardy. He scraped into the tiebreaks thanks to a dramatic turnaround in the penultimate round against Gukesh (below), and went on to win a tense ‘armageddon’ game against Abdusattorov which decided the event.

If there were a ‘best name’ prize at the World Team Championships, held in Hong Kong in June, then ‘Dragon Chilling’ would surely have won it. It managed to be both mythic and absurd at the same time: honouring the team of Chinese stars, especially former world champion Ding Liren who played on top board, and serving up a delicate millefeuille of memes. One layer goes back to 2023, when chess fans noticed Ding sitting alone in a side room during his World Championship match against Ian Nepomniachtchi, serene to the point of indifference as the battle unfolded. ‘Ding was chilling during game one,’ Chess.com captioned it, and the comments filled up with fans parroting the phrase ‘Ding chilling’.

Britain’s first grandmaster, the late Tony Miles, once said about a game he won: ‘I did absolutely f*** all and it proved to be enough!’ It was a long endgame squeeze, in which his opponent made a series of modest weakening moves which eventually cost him the game. Experienced players know that passive ‘waiting’ in the endgame takes reserves of patience which few possess. Indeed, I have even seen defending players sabotage their own position out of sheer boredom. In the very late endgame placing the opponent in ‘zugzwang’ – a situation where all moves worsen their position – may be the only technique to win the game. Composers of problems (particularly mate in two problems) often play with the same idea.

Chess has much unspoken etiquette, besides what is formally required by the rules. The standard protocol for offering your opponent a draw is straightforward: make your move, offer the draw, and only then press the clock. But if you offer a draw before you make a move, the opponent can ask you to move before deciding on their response. And it’s considered rude to offer a draw when your position is clearly worse (unless, say, your opponent is far lower rated, or has much less time). Repeatedly offering draws counts as a distraction. If your peace offer is declined, you tacitly forfeit the right to repeat it, unless your opponent has returned the offer since then. Another no-no is to offer a draw while your opponent is thinking.

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa scored a memorable triumph at Norway Chess earlier this month, thanks to an astonishing late run. After six out of ten rounds, the Indian grandmaster was at the bottom of the table. The four consecutive victories which followed (against Firouzja, Carlsen, Gukesh and Keymer) propelled him into first place, narrowly overtaking Wesley So, who led the event for most of the second half. Norway Chess has an unusual scoring system. Each round, there is a game of classical (slow) chess, but at the elite level many of those games are drawn. In case of a draw, there is a rapid ‘armageddon’ tiebreak game – that is, White gets a time advantage, but must win the game at all costs, because a draw counts as a win for Black.

It takes a moment to grasp what I am watching. A cluster of bodies underwater, each pair on opposite sides of a chessboard which sits at the bottom of the pool. They float horizontally and peer down at the board through their goggles. The player to move presses upwards repeatedly with his palms, as if hyping up an imaginary crowd, but actually resisting the buoyancy that would return him to the surface. He reaches down, makes his move, and rises to the surface to take a breath. The pieces are magnetic, lest they float away, and the captured pieces are discarded in a small metal tray. This is the world championship of Diving Chess, held last month in Tarnowo Podgórne, in Poland.

‘A healthy mind in a healthy body’ – a fine aspiration, but what do you do when both let you down at once? That was the case for Alireza Firouzja at the Superbet Chess Classic Romania 2026. He struggled at the outset, scoring just a draw and two losses from his first three games. The crucial moment from the third is shown below, after Giri has just pushed his pawn to b4. Anish Giri–Alireza Firouzja Grand Chess Tour, Romania, May 2026 68… Be1?? The decisive mistake. Instead, 68…h1=Q+! 69 Kxh1 Be1 was a crucial nuance to achieve the draw, because 70 Rc4+ Kf3! carries a threat of g3-g2+ forcing a promotion.