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Channel update
Chess digest, Oct. 3–7: Nakamura reaches 3500, Russia's titles at halfway, FIDE approves a Chess960 rating |
The first 3500 rating in Chess.com's blitz pool, both Russian national championships at their halfway point in Rostov-on-Don, and the FIDE General Assembly's decisions on Chess960 and the 2030 Olympiad.
Coverage window: after 10:45 Sofia time on October 3 through 10:45 on October 7, 2026.
The Olympiad is a week behind us, and this window has the ordinary rhythm of the chess year again. Hikaru Nakamura put the first 3500 rating into Chess.com's blitz pool, Russia's two national championships reached their rest day with both titles open, FIDE published what its assembly in Samarkand decided, and a school from Minsk took a European title.
Nakamura becomes the first 3500 on Chess.com
Hikaru Nakamura reached 3500 in Chess.com's blitz rating on October 5, the first time anyone has done so, and pushed the record to 3503 during Titled Tuesday on October 6 while streaming from Sithonia, Greece. 1 That number is the site's own blitz rating, built from games played on Chess.com, and it is a different measure from the FIDE list. 1
Nakamura arrived at exactly 3500 before the tournament and made no promise to stay there. "Unless I'm only going to skip [Titled Tuesday and 3 0 Thursday] every week, there's no way even to keep my rating where it is," he told Chess.com, calling the mark "very much a one-time thing". Asked during the stream where the ceiling might be, he put it around 3550. 1
The tournament itself went to Vladislav Artemiev, who beat Nakamura in the final round and finished on 9½/11. Alexander Grischuk and Alexey Sarana also scored 9½ and took second and third on tiebreak; Nakamura, half a point off the lead with one round to play, finished ninth on 8½. 1 It was Artemiev's first Titled Tuesday title since he won three of four between February 16 and March 9 in 2021, and worth $2,500. Nobody managed a perfect 11/11, so the $4,500 bounty rolls over to $5,000 next week. 1
Nakamura during Bullet Brawl on October 3, 2026. That win was his 69th in the event's history; the next player on the all-time list, Daniel Naroditsky, has 32. Photo: GMHikaru/Kick, via Chess.com.
Three days before the milestone, Nakamura had won Bullet Brawl for the fourth week in a row, and with it the record for the most wins of the event in a single calendar year: 20 in 2026, with three months to spare. 2 He finished on 155 points, 15 clear of Jose Martinez on 140, with Tuan Minh Le third on 137, and took the $400 first prize. "I think I've won 20 of 21 Bullet Brawls that I've played this year," he said, "even though today was easily the worst Bullet Brawl I've had in a very long time, I still get the win." 2
Esipenko leads the Russian Superfinals; two women share first
The 79th Russian Championship and the 76th Russian women's championship are being played as two 12-player, 11-round round robins at the Grand Rostov Hyatt Regency in Rostov-on-Don, from October 1 to 12. 3 The prize fund is 11 million rubles, 7 million of it for the open event and 4 million for the women's, and each champion also receives a LADA car from AvtoVAZ. The top five in the open event qualify for the 2027 FIDE World Cup, and the top three women for the 2027 Women's World Cup. 3
Andrey Esipenko, the highest-rated player in the field at 2680, leads the open event alone on 4½/6 after drawing with Aleksey Goganov in Tuesday's sixth round. 4 Four players sit half a point behind him, among them Pavel Ponkratov, ninth of the twelve on rating at 2540. The reigning champion, Arseniy Nesterov, won his first game of the tournament in round six by beating Ernesto Inarkiev, who is last on 1½. 4
| Pos |
Player |
Rating |
Score |
| 1 |
Andrey Esipenko |
2680 |
4½ |
| 2–5 |
Savva Vetokhin |
2555 |
3½ |
| 2–5 |
David Paravyan |
2587 |
3½ |
| 2–5 |
Arseniy Nesterov |
2590 |
3½ |
| 2–5 |
Pavel Ponkratov |
2540 |
3½ |
| 6–8 |
Evgeniy Najer |
2580 |
3 |
| 6–8 |
Aleksey Goganov |
2507 |
3 |
| 6–8 |
Dmitry Kokarev |
2510 |
3 |
| 9–10 |
Aleksey Grebnev |
2614 |
2½ |
| 9–10 |
Ivan Popov |
2595 |
2½ |
| 11 |
Vadim Zvjaginsev |
2522 |
2 |
| 12 |
Ernesto Inarkiev |
2637 |
1½ |
In the women's event, Leya Garifullina caught the leader on Tuesday by beating Maria Pershina with the black pieces, while Anastasia Bodnaruk drew with Ekaterina Kovalevskaya. Both stand on 5/6, a point clear of Ekaterina Goltseva, who has won three in a row. 4 Anna Shukhman, the highest-rated player in the women's field at 2434, is on 3½, and Valentina Gunina is last on 1½. 4
| Pos |
Player |
Rating |
Score |
| 1–2 |
Leya Garifullina |
2418 |
5 |
| 1–2 |
Anastasia Bodnaruk |
2354 |
5 |
| 3 |
Ekaterina Goltseva |
2337 |
4 |
| 4–6 |
Ekaterina Kovalevskaya |
2293 |
3½ |
| 4–6 |
Olga Girya |
2380 |
3½ |
| 4–6 |
Anna Shukhman |
2434 |
3½ |
| 7 |
Margarita Potapova |
2225 |
2½ |
| 8–10 |
Maria Pershina |
2303 |
2 |
| 8–10 |
Galina Mikheeva |
2177 |
2 |
| 8–10 |
Marina Korneva |
2265 |
2 |
| 11–12 |
Daria Charochkina |
2308 |
1½ |
| 11–12 |
Valentina Gunina |
2332 |
1½ |
The standings above are after round six, played on October 6. October 7 is a rest day, and rounds seven to eleven run from October 8 to 12. Both events are all-play-all, so each pair of players meets once, and a tie for first place goes to an extra playoff rather than a tiebreak. Rounds start at 3 p.m. Moscow time, except the eleventh, on October 12, which starts at 1 p.m. 4 3
Play in the open event at the Russian Championship Superfinals in Rostov-on-Don. The federation publishes its own tournament photography. Photo: Russian Chess Federation, via Russian Chess Federation.
FIDE's assembly sets a Chess960 rating and puts Qatar first for 2030
FIDE published the main decisions of its General Assembly on October 4, a week after the Congress in Samarkand. 5
Delegates approved a FIDE rating system for Chess960, the variant also called Fischer Random, in which the pieces on the back rank are shuffled before each game. Germany, Iceland, Norway, Ireland and the Faroe Islands proposed it together, arguing that the variant has grown internationally while the lack of an official rating has kept it out of the wider competitive structure. The system has to be worked out and in place no later than June 1, 2027. 5
The assembly also approved an amendment to the FIDE Charter giving the federation a bilingual institutional name. Wherever FIDE displays its full name together with its acronym, seal or emblem, it will read International Chess Federation / Fédération Internationale des Échecs. The amendment concerns the institutional identity and how it is presented; English stays the official and working language. 5
For the 2030 Olympiad, the assembly noted that both the Qatar Chess Association and the Georgia Chess Federation are ready to host, along with the 2030 Olympiad for people with disabilities and the 2030 Congress, and instructed the FIDE Management Board to negotiate with Qatar first. If the organisational and financial guarantees do not arrive and no contract is signed within a reasonable time, the right to sign passes to Georgia. 5
A further Extraordinary General Assembly will meet online late in 2026 to consider FIDE's budget for 2027 and provisional figures for 2028. 5
The assembly also filled in the rest of the slate around President Timur Turlov and Deputy President Viswanathan Anand, both elected at the Congress: Luigi Maggi as treasurer, Bouchra Kadiri as vice-president and secretary of the FIDE Council, and Mahir Mammedov, Carol S. Williams Pesqueira and Mykhailo Podolyak as the president's nominated vice-presidents. Four honorary vice-presidents — Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Javier Ochoa de Echaguen, Fouad Fahmi Darwish and Michael Stoettinger — go to the FIDE Council for approval, and Francois Strydom was elected to the Constitutional Commission. 5
The FIDE General Assembly in Samarkand, where delegates approved a Chess960 rating system and named Qatar the first choice to host the 2030 Olympiad. Photo: FIDE, via ChessBase.
Minsk's Gymnasium No. 50 wins the European schools title
The European stage of the FIDE ISCF World Schools Team Championship ended in Tsaghkadzor, Armenia, on October 3, after four days and eight rounds, with 27 school teams entered. 6
Gymnasium No. 50 of Minsk won and never lost a match. The Belarusian school opened with two 4–0 wins and turned away every challenger, led by Damir Bulgak on board one and Katrina Yakovleva on board four. 6 Riga State Gymnasium No. 1, the top seed by average rating, lost only to the champions and took second, with Daniel Beniosev unbeaten on board two. 6 LEPL Georgia, Kutaisi Andria Razmadze Physico-Mathematical Public School finished third, ahead of the host team from Yerevan. 6
The champions qualify for the Grand Final in December. 6 Bulgak also supplied the move of the final day. In his game against Matej Viglas, White played 26.Nd2?? and walked into 26…Nxf2!, after which taking the knight runs into 27.Kxf2 Qxh2+ 28.Kf1 Re6! and a forced mate, while declining it leaves White lost. 6
Also this window
- The Gligoric Trophy went to two players who gave something up. Sebastian Poltorak of Poland agreed to a draw with Aleksandar Inđjić at the 2025 European Club Cup after his opponent had to leave the playing hall for medical reasons, and GM Tin Jingyao of Singapore let his opponent play on in the sixth round of the 2025 Almaty Region Open instead of claiming a win by forfeit when that opponent arrived late because of traffic. The commission called both cases exemplary fair play; the award covers September 2024 to September 2026. 7
- Awonder Liang did not drop a game at the Seirawan Chess Championship. The 23-year-old American won all 12 of his games across three matches, each by 3–0, to take the title for the second time after 2024 and a $750 first prize. 8 Jakub Chyzy, 20, of Poland lost to Liang in both the winners' final and the grand final and finished second for $500. 8 In Seirawan chess each side gets two extra pieces, a hawk that moves as bishop and knight and an elephant that moves as rook and knight, both brought onto the board during the game. 8 Crazyhouse and Fog of War are the last two Community Championships of 2026. 8
- Six players share the lead at Fagernes. Two rounds into the GM Swiss at the Scandic Valdres hotel in Norway, Tiger Hillarp Persson, Aksel Bu Kvaløy, Christian Gloeckler, Harika Dronavalli, Frode Olav Olsen Urkedal and Mads Vestby-Ellingsen are all on 2/2. The ten-round tournament runs to October 11. 9
- Moussard took both titles in London. Jules Moussard won the Pall Mall Super Rapid with 7½/10, a point clear of Gawain Maroroa Jones on 6½, and the Super Blitz with 7/10, a point ahead of Benjamin Bok on 6. Praveen Balakrishnan won both Challenge events, the rapid on tiebreak from Ameet Ghasi after both scored 6/9 and the blitz with 6/9, half a point clear of Marcus Harvey. 10
- Greece's championships opened on Psara Island. The 75th Greek Championship and the 48th women's championship began on the Aegean island on October 4, nine rounds each to October 11. After two rounds Ioannis Nikolaidis led the open event on 2/2. 10
What to watch next
| Date (Europe/Sofia) |
Event and location |
Checkpoint |
| October 8–23 |
U.S. and U.S. Women's Championships, Saint Louis Chess Club |
Two 12-player round robins and 11 classical rounds from October 9, with more than $400,000 in prizes; Fabiano Caruana defends the open title, Carissa Yip the women's, and games stream daily from 12:20 p.m. Central. 11 |
| October 8–12 |
Russian Championship Superfinals, Rostov-on-Don |
Rounds 7–11 settle both titles, the World Cup places and the LADA cars, with the final round on October 12. 4 |
| October 16–24 |
European Club Cup, Budva, Montenegro |
The 41st open and 30th women's club cups, seven-round Swiss events at 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes with a 30-second increment, and a €40,000 prize fund. 12 |
| October 24–November 1 |
Sahel Chess Festival, Monastir, Tunisia |
Around 300 players are expected at the Hotel El Habib, with Titas Stremavicius, Pavel Ponkratov, Friso Nijboer, Mihail Marin and Amir Zaibi already entered. 13 |
| November 2–15 |
World Senior Chess Championships, Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia |
Four world titles over 11 rounds of classical chess, in the Open and Women's 50+ and 65+ sections, with a €50,000 prize fund. 14 |
| November 10–20 |
Total Chess World Championship Tour pilot, Budapest |
A 24-player field led by Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, in four groups of six, with Fast Classic games and a blitz Swiss setting the tiebreaks for the knockout stages. 15 |
| November 22–December 13 |
Salesforce FIDE World Championship match, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cologny, Geneva |
Gukesh Dommaraju defends his title against Javokhir Sindarov over a maximum of 14 games, with the opening ceremony on November 22 and the first game on November 24. 16 |
| November 24–December 6 |
XTX Markets London Chess Classic, London |
A ten-player Masters with the field still to be announced; Nodirbek Abdusattorov won last year's edition. 17 |
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Channel update
Chess digest, Sep. 30–Oct. 3: Samarkand remakes the ratings, three Afghan Olympiad players arrested, Saint Louis fields set |
The Olympiad's mark on the new FIDE rating list, three Afghan players arrested after competing in Samarkand, and the fields Saint Louis has set for October.
Coverage window: after 10:45 Sofia time on September 30 through 10:45 on October 3, 2026.
The Chess Olympiad had just finished, and the first FIDE rating list since Samarkand lifted Nodirbek Abdusattorov to world number five. Two off-board stories shaped the rest of the window: three Afghan players who had competed at the Olympiad were arrested after going home, and the Saint Louis Chess Club published the fields for October's U.S. championships.
The Olympiad lands on the October rating list
Abdusattorov gained 18 points to 2780 and moved from seventh to fifth after taking individual gold on board one for the champions. 1 2 Javokhir Sindarov, his countryman and the challenger for the world title in November, gained four points to 2782 and stayed Uzbek number one at world number four, two points behind Fabiano Caruana, who lost five. 1 2
| # |
Player |
Fed |
Rating |
Change |
| 1 |
Magnus Carlsen |
NOR |
2823 |
— |
| 2 |
Hikaru Nakamura |
USA |
2792 |
— |
| 3 |
Fabiano Caruana |
USA |
2784 |
-5 |
| 4 |
Javokhir Sindarov |
UZB |
2782 |
+4 |
| 5 |
Nodirbek Abdusattorov |
UZB |
2780 |
+18 |
| 6 |
Wesley So |
USA |
2770 |
-4 |
| 7 |
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu |
IND |
2763 |
+2 |
| 8 |
Vincent Keymer |
GER |
2761 |
-3 |
| 9 |
Wei Yi |
CHN |
2758 |
+6 |
| 10 |
Alireza Firouzja |
FRA |
2757 |
— |
Carlsen, Nakamura and Firouzja skipped the Olympiad, and their ratings held at 2823, 2792 and 2757. 1 Wei Yi returned to the top ten in place of Arjun Erigaisi, who lost 13 points and fell to twelfth after a first-round defeat to Thailand's Prin Laohawirapap and a run of draws. 2
Abdusattorov, left, drew with Ukraine's Igor Kovalenko in the last round in Samarkand, where Uzbekistan won the open event. The October list put him 18 points higher, at world number five. Photo: Nils Rohde / ChessBase, via ChessBase.
Two movements further down the list stood out. Nodirbek Yakubboev gained 27 points to 2712, the largest gain of anyone in the top 100, and crossed 2700 for the first time; 14.4 of those points came from his individual silver medal in Samarkand and the rest from a 3-1 match win over Amin Tabatabaei on Uzbekistan's Independence Day. 1 Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus gained 15 points to 2731 and moved to 17th, the first time he has entered the top 20; at 15 he has passed Wei Yi's mark of 2721 for the best rating by a player of that age. 1 Gukesh Dommaraju, the reigning world champion, gained seven points to 2710. He had briefly dropped under 2700 on the live list in round two, and the official list kept him above it; a last-round defeat to Hungary's Gleb Dudin cost him the individual gold on board four. 2 1
The women's list turned on China's board one. Zhu Jiner's individual gold took her up nine points to 2559 and back to women's number two, and China holds the top five places. 1 2
| # |
Player |
Fed |
Rating |
Change |
| 1 |
Hou Yifan |
CHN |
2596 |
— |
| 2 |
Zhu Jiner |
CHN |
2559 |
+9 |
| 3 |
Ju Wenjun |
CHN |
2553 |
— |
| 4 |
Lei Tingjie |
CHN |
2552 |
— |
| 5 |
Tan Zhongyi |
CHN |
2536 |
— |
The biggest gains near the top came from two Americans: Carissa Yip climbed 16 points to 2484 and 13th, and Alice Lee gained 14 points to 2467 and 17th, which makes her the highest-rated female junior. 1 Koneru Humpy gained nine points to 2518, Armenia's Mariam Mkrtchyan gained 47 to 2421, and 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan, the youngest woman grandmaster in history, gained 28 to 2382. 2 1 Vaishali Rameshbabu, who found the Olympiad hard, dropped 17 points to 2452 and eight places to number 24. 1
Three Afghan Olympiad players arrested on returning home
Chess is banned in Afghanistan under the Taliban, and playing it in public can draw a fine. The government learned after the fact that Afghan teams had played at the Olympiad in Samarkand — in the open section and, remarkably, the women's section — under the country's traditional tricolour flag, and that Afghan women had competed abroad without head coverings. 3
Three members of the delegation were arrested when they re-entered the country. Khaibar Farazi, Afghanistan's leading player and a well-known television entertainer, Habibullah Amini and Habibullah Guldoost, the women's team captain, had their passports taken at the border and were then placed under house arrest in Kabul while the authorities decide on a punishment. 3 A fourth, Mirzaad Sayed Wahabuddin, crossed at a different border point without incident, and the other eight members of the delegation, including all of Afghanistan's female players, live outside the country. 3
The case became public through the Spanish chess journalist Leontxo García, who reported it in El País; Farazi and Guldoost had approached him. 3 Afghanistan's FIDE delegate, Adzhmal Mangal, told the newspaper the information was still unconfirmed and that the situation had to be watched; the team captain, Zaheer Asefi, who lives in the Netherlands, said he was more concerned. 3 FIDE has pledged its support for the detained players, and Spanish members of the European Parliament are seeking to raise the case there. 3
In Samarkand, Afghanistan's open team scored 10 match points and finished 128th, and the women's team finished 169th. Three Afghan women hold FIDE ratings, all below 1600, so FIDE treated them as unrated for the Olympiad. 3
Saint Louis sets its October fields
The 2026 U.S. and U.S. Women's Championships run at the Saint Louis Chess Club from October 8 to 23, with 12-player fields, 11 rounds of classical chess beginning October 9 and more than $400,000 in total prize money. 4
Fabiano Caruana, the defending and five-time champion, heads the open field, which also includes Wesley So, Hans Niemann, Levon Aronian, Awonder Liang, Sam Sevian, Ray Robson, Jeffery Xiong, Sam Shankland and Abhimanyu Mishra, plus the U.S. junior champion Andy Woodward and the U.S. Open champion Grigoriy Oparin. 4 Carissa Yip, the defending and four-time champion, leads the women's event alongside Alice Lee, the eight-time champion Irina Krush, Rose Atwell, Tatev Abrahamyan, Anna Sargsyan, Rachael Li, Jennifer Yu, Anna Zatonskih, Nazi Paikidze, Thalia Cervantes and the wildcard Megan Paragua. 4
Fabiano Caruana defends the U.S. title he has won five times, at the Saint Louis Chess Club from October 8 to 23. Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club, via ChessBase.
Games are streamed daily from 12:20 p.m. Central with Yasser Seirawan, Maurice Ashley and Katerina Nemcova commentating, and daily tickets cost $25. 4 The month ends with Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown on October 27–29, an 18-game rapid double round-robin worth $425,000 in prizes, with Hikaru Nakamura, Caruana, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Javokhir Sindarov entered. 4 New inductees join the U.S. and World Chess Halls of Fame around the championships, among them Ulf Andersson, Boris Gelfand, Nana Ioseliani, Vasyl Ivanchuk and Alexandra Kosteniuk, and the second Saint Louis Chess Conference follows on October 22–24 with Garry Kasparov as its keynote speaker. 4
Freestyle Friday returns with World Championship places at stake
Freestyle Friday restarted on October 2 after a three-month break, and Matthias Bluebaum won the return tournament outright with nine points from eleven rounds, ahead of Oleksandr Bortnyk, Pranav Venkatesh and S. L. Narayanan on 8½. 5 Rose Atwell took the women's prize in 25th place on 6½, and the first prizes were $400 for Bluebaum and $100 for Atwell. 5
The weekly 11-round Swiss, played at 3+2 and open to titled players, is the resumption of the qualifying race for the 2027 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championships at Weissenhaus, Germany. 6 Freestyle chess, also called Chess960 or Fischer Random, shuffles the back-rank pieces, so memorised opening preparation counts for less. 6 Ten Fridays remain before the knockout finals on December 11 and 18, which award one place in each of the Open and Women's championships, and two online qualifiers, on November 29–December 3 and January 3–7, offer another place in each field. 6 Pranav Venkatesh and Anna Muzychuk have already qualified through the first half of the season, and three places remain open in each field. 6 The Women's World Championship runs on February 5–7, 2027, and the Open championship on February 12–14. 6
Also this window
- Garry Kasparov said US security services warned him that his life was in danger. The 13th world champion, 63, wrote on September 30 that he and another Russian opposition figure, Ivan Tyutrin, had been told to take precautions, and that neither had been told explicitly that they were among the people whose names are withheld in a US indictment. 7 His statement came a day after the Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that a network linked to Russian intelligence had planned attacks on exiled Putin opponents in the United States, including him, and followed a Justice Department indictment on September 15 that charged five people over alleged plots to surveil and kill Russian dissidents in the United States and Europe. 7 The five defendants remain at large and the charges are unproven. "But I will not stop and I will not hide," Kasparov wrote. 7
Garry Kasparov, world champion from 1985 to 2000 and for years one of Vladimir Putin's most prominent critics abroad. Photo: Austin Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club, via Chess.com.
- Jon Speelman turned 70 on October 2. The English grandmaster peaked at 2645 in July 1988, when he stood fifth in the world, and ranked joint fourth in January 1989; he reached the semifinals of the 1989 Candidates, losing 4½–3½ to Jan Timman, won the British Championship in 1978, 1985 and 1986, and played every Chess Olympiad from 1980 to 2006, taking team silver with England in 1984, 1986 and 1988. 8
- 9z Globant won the first Chess Club Showdown. The esports club entered 962 players, led the arena stage on September 30 with 2,368 points and beat Team Liquid 53.5–45.5 across 50 head-to-head boards; 4,400 people from nine clubs played, and one 1,300-rated newcomer's third opponent in the arena was Magnus Carlsen. 9 Carlsen also lost a game to Volen Dyulgerov, a candidate master who streams as Witty Alien. The next edition is on October 28. 9
- Quoc Hy Nguyen, Parham Maghsoodloo and Alexander Grischuk won the October 1 3 0 Thursday events. Nguyen took the first of the three 11-round 3+0 Swiss tournaments on tiebreak from Maghsoodloo, both on nine points; Maghsoodloo won the second with 10/11; and Grischuk took his first title in the third on 9½, after Maghsoodloo beat Reza Mahdavi in the last round to deny him a tie for first. 10 Tan Zhongyi took the women's prize in the first event, her third straight Thursday with it. 10
- A Melbourne man has been charged over an alleged stalking campaign against the Australian streamer Hannah Sayce. Shumsheer Singh Ghumman, 47, faces 35 charges, including stalking and attempting to pervert the course of justice; a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria refused him bail on September 23 and described the alleged offending as methodical and planned. 11 He denies the allegations and remains in custody ahead of an October court appearance. Police told the court he emailed officials in Qatar with a false claim that Sayce was carrying drugs in her chess pieces, after which she was held in a jail cell on arriving in Doha. 11
What to watch next
| Date (Europe/Sofia) |
Event & location |
Checkpoint |
| October 8–23 |
U.S. and U.S. Women's Championships, Saint Louis Chess Club |
Two 12-player round-robins, 11 classical rounds from October 9, more than $400,000 in prizes. Caruana defends the open title and Carissa Yip the women's, with games streamed daily from 12:20 p.m. Central. 4 |
| October 16–24 |
European Club Cup, Budva, Montenegro |
The 41st open and 30th women's club cups, seven-round Swiss events at 90 minutes plus 30 seconds, with a €40,000 prize fund; the leading clubs qualify for the 2027 European Super League. 12 |
| October 27–29 |
Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown, Saint Louis |
Four players in an 18-game rapid double round-robin for $425,000: Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Javokhir Sindarov. 4 |
| November 10–20 |
Total Chess World Championship Tour pilot, Budapest |
A 24-player field led by Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana in four groups of six, with Fast Classic games, a blitz Swiss and knockout stages. 13 |
| November 22 – December 13 |
Salesforce FIDE World Championship match, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cologny, Geneva |
Gukesh Dommaraju defends his title against Javokhir Sindarov over a maximum of 14 games, with the opening ceremony on November 22 and the first game on November 24. 14 |
| November 24 – December 6 |
XTX Markets London Chess Classic, London |
A ten-player Masters with the field still to be announced; Nodirbek Abdusattorov won last year's edition. 15 |
| December 11 & 18 |
Freestyle Friday knockout finals |
One place in each of the 2027 Open and Women's FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championships, played at Weissenhaus in February. 6 |
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