28.10.26

Chess digest, Oct. 24–28: Nakamura takes the Clutch lead, Almaty's top seed falls to zero, FIDE publishes a new structure | Chess World Digest

Chess digest, Oct. 24–28: Nakamura takes the Clutch lead, Almaty's top seed falls to zero, FIDE publishes a new structure

Hikaru Nakamura leads the Clutch Chess showdown after day one, a 2474-rated Kazakh tops the table in Almaty while the top seed sits on zero, and FIDE's president has published a new structure for the federation.

View the full story on Neodrop →

Coverage window: after 10:45 Sofia time on October 24 through 10:45 on October 28, 2026.

Hikaru Nakamura leads Clutch Chess in Saint Louis after the first of its three days, half a point ahead of Javokhir Sindarov. In Almaty, a grandmaster rated 2474 leads a ten-player round robin in which both top seeds have lost both of their games. FIDE's new president has also published an organizational chart for the federation, and booked an Extraordinary General Assembly for December 27.

Nakamura takes day one, with the points doubling from tonight

Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown is in its second edition at the Saint Louis Chess Club, October 27 to 29. Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Javokhir Sindarov play three double round-robins at 10 minutes plus a five-second increment, 18 games each. 1

The scoring system, devised by Maurice Ashley, makes each game worth more than the one before. A win is worth one point and $1,000 on day one, two points and $2,000 on day two, three points and $3,000 on day three. A draw is worth half a point on day one and a full point afterwards. 2

The prize fund is $425,000, and the money set aside for drawn games goes into a jackpot for the winner. Day one produced five decisive games and seven draws, so $7,000 has gone into that pot. 1

Nakamura scored two wins and four draws for 4/6. He beat Caruana with white in their second game. Caruana chose the sounder 5...Qe7 in a line from So–Caruana at the U.S. Championship, and 44...Nf7? left a knight hanging. 1

In their first game Nakamura had a winning rook endgame and let Caruana escape with perpetual check. He then beat Praggnanandhaa with white, out of an opening Pragg had already been in trouble with. 2

Sindarov is second on 3½, with one win and five draws. The win came against Praggnanandhaa, who gave up a pawn with 47.g4?? while down to 11 seconds. 1

In the last game of the day Sindarov had a winning position against Nakamura and played 63.Bd4? instead of 63.c6!, with about 20 seconds left. The game ran to 117 moves and was drawn. 2

Caruana is third on 2½ and Praggnanandhaa last on 2. Caruana won one game from a lost position after 32.Qf3?? allowed 32...c2, and lost the return game in a same-colour bishop ending. 2

"I was kind of saving all the losing positions and losing all the dead-drawn positions!" Caruana said afterwards. 1

Standings after day one, with wins worth one point and draws half a point. 2

Player	Points	W-D-L
Hikaru Nakamura	4	2-4-0
Javokhir Sindarov	3½	1-5-0
Fabiano Caruana	2½	1-3-2
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu	2	1-2-3

Day two starts tonight at 19:00 Sofia time, with every win now worth two points. For Sindarov it is the last tournament before he plays Gukesh Dommaraju for the world title in Cologny from November 22. 1

Four players at two boards in a small room, with the Clutch Chess backdrop behind them

Two boards in one room on day one at the Saint Louis Chess Club: Caruana and Nakamura at the near table, the second match of the round behind them, and each pairing shown on the screen under the board. Photo: Crystal Fuller, via ChessBase.

In Almaty, a 2474-rated local leads and both top seeds are on zero

The KazChess Masters began on October 26 and runs to November 3 in Almaty: ten players, nine rounds. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30, with a 30-second increment from move one and no draw offers before move 30. 3

Five grandmasters from abroad face five Kazakhs. Mahammad Muradli of Azerbaijan is the top seed at 2662, ahead of Daniil Dubov on 2654. The field runs down to Mark Smirnov, a 14-year-old two-time world youth champion, on 2451. 3 Alua Nurman, on 2460, is the only woman in the field. 4

Muradli has lost both of his games, to Denis Lazavik in round one and to Shamsiddin Vokhidov in round two. 4

Edgar Mamedov, a Kazakh grandmaster rated 2474, is the only player on 2/2. He beat Sauat Nurgaliyev in round one, then beat Aram Hakobyan with black in round two. 4

Smirnov lost his first game to Dubov and won his second against Nurman. Dubov opened with a win and then drew with Lazavik. 4

Round three is today, and the pairings include Vokhidov–Dubov and Mamedov–Muradli. 4

Standings after round two. Players level on score are ordered by rating. 4

Player	Fed	Rating	Score
Edgar Mamedov	KAZ	2474	2
Daniil Dubov	RUS	2654	1½
Shamsiddin Vokhidov	UZB	2649	1½
Denis Lazavik	BLR	2636	1½
Denis Makhnev	KAZ	2581	1½
Mark Smirnov	KAZ	2451	1
Aram Hakobyan	ARM	2638	½
Sauat Nurgaliyev	KAZ	2526	½
Mahammad Muradli	AZE	2662	0
Alua Nurman	KAZ	2460	0

Harvey wins the English Rapidplay on an Armageddon game

The English Rapidplay Championship was an 11-round Swiss at 15 minutes plus 10 seconds a move, played October 24 and 25 in Peterborough. It sits inside the English Chess Championships, which run to November 1. 5

Michael Adams, the top seed at 2614, went into the last round sharing the lead with Marcus Harvey and Jonah Willow on 8/10. Harvey beat Gawain Maroroa Jones, and Willow beat 13-year-old Oleg Verbytski. 5

Adams was held to a draw by Livio Cancedda-Dupuis, an untitled player, and finished third on 8½, half a point behind the tie at the top. 5

Harvey and Willow finished level on 9/11, so the title went to a five-game playoff. They split two rapid games, split two blitz games, and Harvey won the Armageddon with white. 5

Woodward's first Titled Tuesday, Nakamura's seventh straight Bullet Brawl

Andy Woodward won Titled Tuesday on October 27 with 9½/11, taking it on the second tiebreak ahead of Arjun Erigaisi, who also scored 9½. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was third on 9½ as well. 6

Woodward lost his first-round game, blundering mate in one while two pawns up. Nineteen players reached 4/4, and the perfect-score bounty of $5,500 went unclaimed again. 6

Nakamura skipped Titled Tuesday for Clutch Chess. Denis Lazavik finished seventh while also playing in Almaty, and Polina Shuvalova took the top women's prize in 46th. 6

On Saturday, Nakamura won Bullet Brawl for the seventh week in a row, scoring 178 points. A 23-game winning streak early in the two-hour arena settled it, against 218 titled players. 7

Oleksandr Bortnyk was second on 146 and Yoseph Taher third on 145. Aleksandr Usov, 16, came fourth on 134 after starting 17.5/18. It was Nakamura's 72nd career Bullet Brawl win and his 23rd of 2026. 7

FIDE publishes a new structure and books a December assembly

Timur Turlov, elected FIDE president on September 26, published a new organizational structure for the federation on October 26. The General Assembly remains the supreme body, and the FIDE Council is given a larger role in setting strategy and overseeing it. 8

Beside the president sit a Governance Secretariat, a President's Office and a new Advisory Board. Adil Kozhikhov heads the President's Office, Alina Dvoretskaya is Secretary General, and Darmen Sadvakasov chairs the Advisory Board. Viswanathan Anand remains deputy president. 8

Diagram titled FIDE Organizational Structure showing the General Assembly above the FIDE Council, with commissions, finance, the president's office, an advisory board and ten departments

The proposed structure, published with Turlov's letter of October 26: the General Assembly over the Council, a Governance Secretariat serving the commissions, and ten departments under a Secretary General. Diagram: FIDE.

Turlov framed the change as "the next stage of development", and called the institution he wants to build "New FIDE". 9

FIDE also invited delegates to an Extraordinary General Assembly, held online on December 27 at 14:30 CET, which is 15:30 Sofia time. The agenda and papers are due by November 27. 10

Also this window

A 2000-rated club player wins the Deizisau Autumn Open. Julius Lücke, playing for the host club SF Deizisau, scored 6/7 in the seven rounds of October 23 to 26, ahead of IM Adrian Gschnitzer on tiebreak. 11
A fourth-tier German club played the European Club Cup. Bundesliga clubs confirm by early August whether they take their places, and clubs from below may apply for what they leave. That is how SK Weisse Dame Hamburg, from the Landesliga, reached Budva. René Mandelbaum's account of the week found players rated between 1800 and 2000 on the bottom boards of a European championship. 12
FIDE's chess-in-education conference goes to Almaty. The fourth edition runs November 12–13 at Narxoz University, with Turlov opening it and speakers from South Africa, Syria, Catalonia and Webster University. 13

What to watch next

Date (Europe/Sofia)	Event and location	Checkpoint
October 28	Clutch Chess, day two, Saint Louis	Wins are worth two points from tonight; first games 19:00 Sofia. 1
October 29	Clutch Chess, day three, Saint Louis	Wins are worth three points, and the $425,000 event ends that evening. 2
October 28 – November 3	KazChess Masters, Almaty	Rounds three to nine, with Dubov, Vokhidov and Mamedov at the top of the table. 3
October 31	Bullet Brawl, online	18:00 Sofia; Nakamura has won seven in a row. 7
November 7	The 100-0 Project, online	Daniil Dubov plays 100 games of 1+0 against Josh Smith, an amateur in the 1800s; Dubov is guaranteed $10,000 and doubles it only with a 100-0 sweep. 14
November 10–20	Total Chess World Championship Tour pilot, Budapest	24 players, Carlsen and Caruana among them, with Fast Classic, rapid and blitz in one event. 15
November 22 – December 13	Salesforce FIDE World Championship match, Cologny, Geneva	Gukesh Dommaraju defends against Javokhir Sindarov; the first classical game is November 24. 16
December 27	FIDE Extraordinary General Assembly, online	15:30 Sofia time; the agenda and documents are due by November 27. 10

References

1Chess.com: Nakamura Leads After Wins Vs. Caruana & Praggnanandhaa

2ChessBase: Clutch Chess — Nakamura leads after lively first day of action

3ChessBase: KazChess Masters Almaty 2026 — Live!

4Chess-Results: KazChess Masters Almaty 2026, pairings and results

5ChessBase: Harvey beats Willow in Armageddon, claims English Rapidplay title

6Chess.com: 'W' Is For Woodward Wins Titled Tuesday

7Chess.com: Another Week, Another Win For Bullet Brawl's GOAT Nakamura

8ChessBase: Timur Turlov outlines plans to restructure FIDE

9FIDE: FIDE — The Next Stage of Development

10FIDE: Invitation — FIDE Extraordinary General Assembly 2026

11Chess-Results: 20th Deizisau Autumn Open 2026, final ranking

12ChessBase: European Club Cup — Amateurs rub shoulders with the pros

13FIDE: International conference "Chess in Education" to be held in Almaty

14Chess.com: Dubov Accepts $20,000 100-Game Challenge From 'Bullet Grandpa'\

15ChessBase: Total Chess World Championship Tour announces six more stars for pilot\

16ChessBase: Salesforce FIDE World Championship Match 2026\

26.10.26

Your Body is Playing Chess Too — Whether You Notice or Not

Ask any chess player where the game is played.

They will point to their head.

And they are only partly right.

The Generative State is not just a mental condition — it is a physical one. Your body is not a vehicle that carries your brain to the tournament. It is an active participant in every decision you make at the board.

Notice what happens when you are under pressure. Your shoulders tighten. Your breathing becomes shallow. You lean forward, jaw clenched, eyes narrowed.

And your chess gets worse.

Now notice what happens when you consciously sit back, take one slow breath, relax your shoulders, and feel your feet on the floor.

Something shifts. The position looks different. Options appear that weren't there a moment ago.

Your body is not separate from your chess. It IS your chess.

GC works with both — always. ♟️

24.10.26

Chess digest, Oct. 21–24: So loses and still wins, Li takes it at 16, Bodhana breaks Polgar's record | Chess World Digest

Channel update

Chess digest, Oct. 21–24: So loses and still wins, Li takes it at 16, Bodhana breaks Polgar's record

Wesley So's 48-game unbeaten run ends in the last round and he still takes a fourth U.S. title in a playoff, Rachael Li wins the women's championship at 16 on her debut, Bayegan Pendik take the European Club Cup on tiebreak, and Bodhana Sivanandan becomes the youngest female IM in history.

View the full story on Neodrop →

Coverage window: after 10:45 Sofia time on October 21 through 10:45 on October 24, 2026.

Wesley So's 48-game unbeaten run at the U.S. Championship ended in the last round, and he won his fourth title the next evening anyway. Rachael Li, 16, took the women's championship on her debut. In Budva, Bayegan Pendik won the European Club Cup from Novy Bor on tiebreak, Monte-Carlo kept the women's cup, and Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest female international master in history.

So's 48-game run ends, and the fourth title comes a night later

Both U.S. titles are 12-player round robins at the Saint Louis Chess Club, played October 9 to 22 at 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes. The open carries $250,000, with $55,000 for first; the women's event $152,000, with $35,000 for first. 1

So came into the final round a point clear and needed a draw with black against Sam Sevian, who was last on 2½/10 and had not won a game all tournament. 2

Sevian had never lost to So at a classical time control: two wins and twelve draws in their fourteen previous classical games. He got an advantage in the Nimzo-Indian, reached a winning rook endgame, and spoiled it into a draw. So then spoiled the drawn position into a loss. 2

Fabiano Caruana had called his own chances "essentially zero" the day before, and had to win with white against Awonder Liang to force a playoff. He did, on the strength of a 6.Bf4 idea in the Tarrasch that his second, Grigoriy Oparin, had shown him. 2 3

Three games were decisive. Oparin drew Ray Robson in a Ruy Lopez and finished half a point short of the playoff. Jeffery Xiong beat Hans Niemann with black; Niemann ended on 4/11, lost 20 rating points and dropped out of the 2700 club. 2

The playoff was two rapid games at 15+10, the next evening. In the first, So opened with an 11...Nb6!? novelty that looked like a blunder and invited Caruana to take a piece; Caruana declined, and after 72 moves the game was drawn. So had missed a forced win on move 34. 4

In the second, Caruana chose a speculative gambit with black, got nothing for the pawn, and blundered a piece. So won the game and the match 1½–½. 4

"I think I only slept for two or three hours, and I was not in the mood to play today at all," So said afterwards. "I don't think I deserved to win this year, but I'll take it of course." 4

Caruana's own reading was blunter. "I have lost about 110 Elo points in a year," he said. "But I don't know what's been going on. I haven't been able to find my form." 4

The title is So's fourth, after 2017, 2020 and 2021, and came with $56,000. 5

Five players took the places for the next FIDE World Cup: Caruana, So, Oparin, Xiong and Andy Woodward. 3

Wesley So at a chessboard with a U.S. Chess Championship backdrop

Wesley So in the final round in Saint Louis, the game he lost to Samuel Sevian. He beat Fabiano Caruana in a rapid playoff the next evening. Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club, via ChessBase.

Final standings, open section, after 11 rounds. Ratings are the invitational ratings published for the event; players level on score share a place. 6

Pos	Player	Rating	Score
1	Wesley So	2796	7
1	Fabiano Caruana	2831	7
3	Grigoriy Oparin	2683	6½
3	Jeffery Xiong	2693	6½
5	Andy Woodward	2685	6
6	Levon Aronian	2768	5½
6	Awonder Liang	2753	5½
6	Abhimanyu Mishra	2686	5½
9	Sam Shankland	2692	5
10	Hans Niemann	2770	4
10	Ray Robson	2701	4
12	Samuel Sevian	2736	3½

Li takes the women's title at 16, on her first attempt

Rachael Li led by a point on 8/10 and needed a draw against Anna Zatonskih. She got it in 49 moves, from an opposite-coloured bishop endgame that had been level for a long time. 7

The game very nearly ended after 14 moves. Zatonskih could have forced a threefold repetition and chose not to, because, as she put it in the confessional booth, repeating the position "would be unfair to Alice Lee". 3

Alice Lee, one point behind, did her part: she beat Anna Sargsyan with black, holding her position together with 28...Qe8! against a two-pawn sacrifice. Li said later that she would have declined the repetition too. 3

Li is the youngest player to win the title on a debut. Irina Krush is still the youngest champion ever, at 14. 7

Her prize money totalled $45,000: the $35,000 first prize, a $5,000 winner's bonus and the $5,000 Finish Strong award for the best score over the last six rounds. 7

She also earned her first IM norm, gained about 50 rating points over the event, and qualified for the next Women's World Cup alongside Lee, who took $30,000. 3

Behind them, Krush beat Tatev Abrahamyan to take third outright, and Rose Atwell beat Nazi Paikidze with a queen sacrifice. Carissa Yip, the defending champion, drew Jennifer Yu and finished on 4½. 3

Final standings, women's section, after 11 rounds. 8

Pos	Player	Rating	Score
1	Rachael Li	2382	8½
2	Alice Lee	2465	8
3	Irina Krush	2440	7½
4	Thalia Cervantes	2311	6
4	Megan Paragua	2295	6
6	Jennifer Yu	2373	5
7	Carissa Yip	2505	4½
7	Rose Atwell	2427	4½
7	Tatev Abrahamyan	2417	4½
7	Anna Zatonskih	2358	4½
11	Anna Sargsyan	2404	4
12	Nazi Paikidze	2336	3

Bayegan Pendik win the club cup, and Novy Bor lose it on the margin

The 41st European Club Cup ran October 17 to 23 in Budva, Montenegro: seven rounds, 108 teams in the open section and 22 in the women's, at 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes with a 30-second increment from move one. 9

Three teams came into the last round on 11/12, and two of them met. Bayegan Pendik, the top seeds, beat SuperChess Romania 3½–2½. 10

Anish Giri made the difference on board one. Against Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the highest-rated player in the field, Giri left a rook en prise; Abdusattorov took it, missed the follow-up, and was lost by move 22. Amin Tabatabaei added a second win. 9

Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, 15, lost to Jorden van Foreest. Low on time, he declined a free a4-pawn, and Giri's verdict afterwards was that "Yagiz is an incredible calculator, so he must have seen too much". 9

Novy Bor beat Elektroprivreda 4½–1½ and finished level with Bayegan on 13 match points. The tiebreak separated them by 8.5, 261.5 to 253. 9

Rishon LeZion A, led by Boris Gelfand, took bronze with a 5½–½ win over Cheddleton Savills Catering. SuperChess Romania, the defending champions, finished fourth and took a place in the 2027 European Chess Super League. 9

Nihal Sarin scored 5/6 for Novy Bor, took gold on board two with a 2859 performance, and rose to a career-best No. 18. Pentala Harikrishna and David Navara also scored 5/6, for silvers on boards three and six. Board one gold went to Marc'Andria Maurizzi. 9

Final standings, open section, top ten. Match points decide the table; the tiebreak column is the organisers' first tiebreak. 9

Pos	Seed	Team	Match points	Tiebreak
1	1	Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club	13	261.5
2	4	Novy Bor Chess Club	13	253
3	9	Rishon LeZion A	12	227.5
4	3	SuperChess Romania	11	259
5	5	Tuxera Aquaprofit Nagykanizsai	11	239.5
6	2	Alkaloid	11	237.5
7	7	Ashdod	11	227.5
8	11	Aix-en-Provence	11	205
9	10	Beer Sheva	11	189
10	8	Vugar Gashimov	10	224

Monte-Carlo hold the women's cup

Bonnevoie, Monte-Carlo and Odlar Yurdu all came into the last round on 10/12, and none of them had to play each other. 10

Monte-Carlo, the defending champions, won 4–0 against Davit Jojua's Chess Club. The scoreline was kinder than the games: Koneru Humpy was lost against Nia Donghvani until the Georgian missed a tactic with under a minute on the clock. 9

Bonnevoie beat Crvena Zvezda. Odlar Yurdu, who had beaten Bonnevoie the round before, were beaten 3½–½ by Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica. 9

Monte-Carlo and Bonnevoie finished level on 12 match points; Monte-Carlo's tiebreak of 159.5 was 14.5 clear. It is the club's ninth title in the event, and it means Bonnevoie finished second having beaten the first, second and third seeds during the week. 9

The top seven seeds finished in the top seven places. Monte-Carlo also took board golds on one, two and four, through Aleksandra Goryachkina, Koneru and Elisabeth Paehtz. 9

Final standings, women's section, top ten. 9

Pos	Seed	Team	Match points	Tiebreak
1	1	Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo	12	159.5
2	4	CE Gambit Bonnevoie	12	145
3	2	Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica	10	136
4	5	Odlar Yurdu	10	107
5	3	SuperChess Romania	9	117
6	6	Gambit ASEE	8	104
7	7	Crvena Zvezda	8	103
8	15	Davit Jojua's chess club	8	80
9	18	Velikova Chess Club	8	65.5
10	8	Club Ajedrez Linares	7	90

Bodhana Sivanandan is the youngest female IM in history

Bodhana Sivanandan, 11, needed a win with black against Viktoria Johansson of Sweden in the last round for her third international master norm. She got it, finished on 5½/7 on board one for She Plays To Win Lionesses A, and performed at 2465. 11

That makes her the youngest female international master ever, at 11 years, seven months and 16 days. Judit Polgar had held the mark since 1988, when she earned the title at 12. 11

She is the seventh-youngest IM of all time, a month older than Javokhir Sindarov was in 2017 and nearly two months older than Gukesh Dommaraju in 2018, and one of ten players to complete the title before turning 12. 11

Her three norms came in three months. The first was at the Dole Open in July, where she also became the youngest girl to beat a player rated above 2600, Marc'Andria Maurizzi at 2628. The second came at the Olympiad in September, where she scored 8/11 on England's top board. The third was in Budva. 11

She crossed 2400 live during the club cup. Her WGM requirements, met at the Olympiad, are still awaiting formal approval. 11

"I'm happy about that but hopefully I'm able to get grandmaster soon as well!" she said on the broadcast. Asked for the secret behind the run, she said: "No secret!" 11

Malcolm Pein of the English Chess Federation called her "a generational talent". Her coach Mert Erdogdu said he works with her four times a week, alongside John Emms. 11

Bodhana Sivanandan playing a girl in a green shirt at the European Club Cup

Bodhana Sivanandan, left, against Arina Budiak of Klaipeda in round six of the women's European Club Cup, the fourth of her five wins in Budva. Her team, She Plays To Win Lionesses A, finished 11th of 22, one place above its seeding. Photo: Gerd Densing / ChessBase, via ChessBase.

Three winners on Thursday, a third title on Friday

3 0 Thursday is three 11-round Swiss tournaments at 3+0 every Thursday, with $3,000 across them. 12

Hikaru Nakamura won the first, playing the Goat Horns Variation, 1...a6 and 2...c6, in every black game for 4½/5 with black. He went into the last round on 9/10 and lost to Sina Movahed. Parham Maghsoodloo could have overtaken him and lost to Jeffery Xiong instead, so four players finished on 9 and Nakamura won the tiebreak. 12

The opening came from a ChatGPT advertisement that Lionel Messi posted on October 21 to 517 million Instagram followers, in which the model recommends Goat Horns as fitting his style. 13

Fabiano Caruana, who had just lost the U.S. playoff, won the second tournament with 9½. He won his first five rounds, lost one to Dmitry Andreikin, then won four more and drew the last. 12

Maghsoodloo won the third by 1½ points with 9½, his tenth title in the format. Only Renato Terry, on 18, and Jose Martinez, on 15, have more. 12

On Friday, Hans Niemann won his third Freestyle Friday, scoring nine and beating Movahed on tiebreak, 73.5 to 61.5. Their round-10 game was the decisive one of the event, and Niemann won it. 14

Maghsoodloo was third on 8½ after reaching 6/6, Reza Mahdavi fourth, and Le Thao Nguyen Pham took the women's prize. The winner's cheque was $400. 14

Also this window

A €300,000 rapid event in Barcelona, with a one-second increment. Magnus Carlsen will headline the first MOVE Cup on January 19–20, 2027: eight players, 10 minutes plus one second a move, a round robin on day one, best-of-three semifinals, a best-of-five final. A €300,000 foundation contribution matches the prize fund. The dates overlap Tata Steel, which runs January 15–31: "It means that I'm not playing next year," Carlsen said of Wijk aan Zee. 15
Kazakhstan's haul at the World U7–U17. 721 players from 82 countries played 11 rounds in Roquetas de Mar, Spain, across 12 age and gender categories. Milana Filippova won the girls under-11 with 11/11, Danis Kuandykuly the open under-13 with 10½/11, Leila Aldazharova the girls under-7 with 9/11, and Amirzhan Anetov the open under-11. Ukraine's Myron Netrebka took the open under-9 with 9½/11. 16
Rapid and blitz rating fees waived through 2027. The FIDE Council extended a waiver first introduced for 2021–2024 and now written into the handbook, with waived fees since then approaching €2 million. 17

What to watch next

Date (Europe/Sofia)	Event and location	Checkpoint
October 24	Bullet Brawl, online	Nakamura has won the last six and 22 of 23 events this year. 18
October 27–29	Clutch Chess Champions Showdown, Saint Louis	Caruana, Nakamura, Praggnanandhaa and Sindarov play 18 rapid games in three days, with a win worth one, two and then three points; $425,000. First games October 27 at 19:00 Sofia time. 4
October 27	Titled Tuesday, online	Nakamura won the October 20 edition; the perfect-score bounty stands at $5,250 and grows by $250 a week. 19
November 7	The 100-0 Project: Daniil Dubov v Josh Smith, online	100 games of one-minute bullet; Dubov is guaranteed $10,000 and doubles it only by winning every game. 20
November 10–20	Total Chess World Championship Tour pilot, Budapest	A 24-player field in four groups of six, with Carlsen and Caruana among them. 21
November 22–December 13	Salesforce FIDE World Championship match, Cologny, Geneva	Gukesh Dommaraju defends against Javokhir Sindarov over a maximum of 14 games; the first game is November 24. 22