Fans would have preferred contest for world crown, but 20-minute Rapid games are still competitive substitute

Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, will be paired at least twice in the next few days with the world championship challenger, Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov, in the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League, the six-team franchise competition based on cricket’s Indian Premier League.

In 2024 the Global League was staged in London, but this year it is back in India at Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), India’s technology capital, from 5-13 September, finishing two days before the 400-team chess Olympiad opens in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

The Indian, just 21, scored his second major success of the summer following Norway Chess at Oslo while Wesley So halved to Sinquefield Cup victory with nine straight draws

India’s world No 12, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, won the Grand Chess Tour finals in St Louis on Thursday night when he defeated the US’s world No 2, Fabiano Caruana, in a mix of classical, rapid and blitz games by 15-13. It was the 21-year-old’s second major success of the summer following Norway Chess at Oslo and it earned him a record $200,000 first prize, up from $150,000 in 2025.

Earlier, Wesley So, the US world No 6, won the prestigious Sinquefield Cup and more than $100,000 for the second year in succession, despite a run of nine mostly colourless draws.

Bodhana Sivanandan, 11, is youngest ever British women’s champion while Supratit Banerjee, 12, becomes England’s youngest ever international master

A new generation took over at the top of British chess on Sunday, when a trio of youthful talents demonstrated their skills on a national stage. Shreyas Royal, 17, of Dartford, Kent, became the youngest ever British champion, breaking Michael Adams’s 1989 record by two months and underlining his status as an emerging world-class talent. Bodhana Sivanandan, aged 11, and Supratit Banerjee, 12, also delivered memorable performances.

First prize at the University of Warwick, Coventry, was £10,000.

Harrow schoolgirl eclipses legend Judit Polgar as youngest girl ever to score international master result

England’s 11-year-old talent Bodhana Sivanandan fought her way to another world age record last Saturday. Sivanandan ended the Dole Trophy in Aix-en-Provence, France, with a historic first international master result.

Judit Polgar, the all-time No 1 woman, achieved her first IM norm in April 1988 in the International B section of the New York Open at 11 years and nine months. Sivanandan had a harder route to beating Polgar’s age record by almost five months.

Harrow schoolgirl eclipses legend Judit Polgar’s mark as youngest girl ever to defeat a grandmaster rated above 2600, then draws with a former 2700

England’s 11-year-old talent Bodhana Sivanandan scored her best individual result last Saturday, when the Harrow schoolgirl defeated France’s 2628-rated grandmaster Marc’Andria Maurizzi, 19, in the opening round of the Dole Trophy in Aix-en-Provence. Maurizzi was world under-20 junior champion in 2023 and is the current French champion.

Sivanandan had beaten two GMs previously but neither was as eminent as Maurizzi, and her result is a new world age record for a girl to defeat a grandmaster rated over 2600. The Frenchman held the advantage for the first 27 moves but then blundered into a tactic which won his queen for inadequate compensation.

EU unveils largest package in four years of measures against Russian individuals and interests; Laura Loomer shows up in Kyiv. What we know on day 1,612

Judit Polgár says she does not ‘feel enough strength within me’ to take on the responsibility of uniting a divided nation

The Hungarian chess ⁠legend Judit Polgár has said she will not accept the nomination for president, only a day after the ⁠prime minister, Péter Magyar, ⁠said he ​would ask her to take up the largely ceremonial role.

Magyar had said he would meet Polgár on Monday to discuss the matter. “Our country needs unity, peace and a president that all Hungarians can be proud of,” he wrote on social media. “Judit Polgár’s name has been synonymous with talent and perseverance for decades.”

Two of the top four chess nations will go head to head in Miami on 27-28 July

The USA and Uzbekistan are among the world’s current four best chess teams, along with India and China, so the announcement that the pair will meet at Miami on 27-28 July in an all-play-all rapid and blitz Scheveningen format is sure to create interest as a guide to what may happen when the 200-nation classical Olympiad takes place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from 15-27 September. Full details of the forthcoming match are here.

The two teams in Miami will both be at virtually full strength. The USA will field the world Nos 2 and 3, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, plus the world No 7, Wesley So, and the world Nos 17 and 22, Leinier Domínguez and Levon Aronian. Only the world No 19, Hans Niemann, might have made it stronger.

The Frenchman is ranked world No 12, but that is a disappointment after he became the youngest ever 2800-rated player at 18 years and five months

Alireza Firouzja is shaping up to be one of the nearly men of grandmaster chess. The Iran-born Frenchman, 23, has just won the St Louis-organised Croatia Super Rapid and Blitz in Zagreb. He was far ahead at the start of the last day, but had a poor run of 2/7 during the final rounds before a successful Armageddon tie-break.

Firouzja’s career has been limited by his below-par performances in the Candidates. In 2022, he spoiled his chances by playing blitz into the small hours; in 2024, he did worse still, finishing seventh out of eight. He made a major effort to qualify again in 2025, hiring the late Daniel Naroditsky as his coach for the Grand Swiss in Samarkand, but finished third when only two qualified. At the victory ceremony, the bronze medal podium was conspicuously uninhabited.

Annual celebration on 12 July enables social players and children to challenge some of England’s best

On Sunday, 12 July, ChessFest, the game’s annual celebration, returns to Trafalgar Square in central London and offers a unique opportunity for ordinary players and their children to experience top chess free of charge. Complete beginners are welcome and will receive helpful instruction from Chess in Schools and Communities tutors.

The action starts at noon and continues until 7pm. Throughout the day, experts including nine-time British champion Michael Adams, three-time champion Gawain Maroroa Jones, and many other international players will give simultaneous displays or be available for one-to-one speed games in the Challenge the Chess Master tent.

The word No 1 has had difficult periods previously, but at 35 and a wealthy family man, could he now be tempted towards a more relaxed lifestyle?

Magnus Carlsen’s four defeats in a row during the World Team Rapid in Hong Kong last week, coupled with his disappointing fourth place among six grandmasters in Oslo last month, have sparked discussion about whether the Norwegian, now a wealthy 35-year-old with a baby son, might be tempted towards a further reduction in his chess activities and a more relaxed lifestyle.

Carlsen had not previously lost four games in succession since Gausdal 2002, when he was 11 years old. The four defeats came after Carlsen had begun well, with a draw and then two victories, one against a historic rival, the Ukrainian veteran Vasyl Ivanchuk. That win was achieved in a classic example of a style and technique which Carlsen has made his own, a prolonged squeeze and grind maintained despite acute time pressure, as was his next victory against China’s Xu Xiangyu.

The €500,000 tournament has attracted several strong national teams, plus the favourites, WR Chess, led by the world No 1, Magnus Carlsen

Dragon Chilling may be an ­unfamiliar chess name, but the squad from China won the gold medals at the World Teams Rapid in Hong Kong. Teams of six include a woman, a ­junior and an amateur who has never achieved a 2000 ­rating. The strong ^­performance by Asian teams at the start highlights a boom in chess, with enthusiasm sparked by successive world ­champions from China (Ding Liren) and India (Gukesh Dommaraju).

The time control for rapid is 15 minutes for the whole game, plus a 10 seconds per move increment from move one; while for blitz it is three minutes plus a two seconds per move increment. There is no repeat of the attempt in London last year to play without increment, which caused chaotic conclusions to several games.

The world No 1’s setback in Oslo and reduced participation coincides with the emergence of a new star

Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, had his worst tournament result since 2015 last week when the 35-year-old ended up fourth of six in the $178,000 (£133,000) Norway Chess event at Oslo, losing four games out of 10.

There were reasons for his disappointing showing. Previous editions of the event were in distant Stavanger, far from the hometown pressures of Oslo, while Carlsen is the father of a baby son and he arrived at several games seemingly unprepared.

The Russian world title challenger and the controversial American have personal issues but similar ratings, and drew 4-4 with a win apiece and six draws

Ian Nepomniachtchi, who won two Candidates tournaments but then lost world title matches to Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren, and Hans Niemann, whose controversial 2022 game with Carlsen is the subject of the Netflix documentary Untold: Chess Mates, tied an eight-game series in Belgrade this week with a win apiece and six draws.

Nepo won the first game and Niemann the eighth, after the Russian missed an easy opportunity to win game seven. They played two games a day at a brisk time control of one hour per player plus a 30 seconds per move increment, which Fide calls “Fast Classical”. The event was opened by Serbia’s minister of sport, Zoran Gajic, and the veteran grandmaster Ljubomir Ljubojevic made a ceremonial opening move.

Frenchman scored at Norway Chess despite his heavily protected sprained ankle, and defeated Carlsen for the first time in a classical game

Magnus Carlsen has won the annual Norway Chess elite tournament for six of the past seven years. However, the 35-year-old world No 1 was shocked in Monday’s opening round by Alireza Firouzja, who had finished last at Bucharest the previous week in the Grand Chess Tour event won by Germany’s Vincent Keymer.

The Frenchman, 22, defeated Carlsen for the first time in classical chess despite playing with a sprained ankle, caused by falling off a stage at Bucharest. It was the most high-profile success by a physically injured grandmaster since Tilburg 1985, where England’s Tony Miles shared first prize playing prone from a massage table after injuring his back.

Check it out

UPDATE: Read the answers here

Today’s four puzzles are inspired by chess. (If you haven’t yet watched the recent documentaries on Judit Polgár and Hans Niemann, I recommend them.)

1. Oddities

The winner will qualify for the GB team for the 2027 World Solving Championship, an event where they are often medal contenders

This week’s puzzle is a chance to enter an annual national competition in which Guardian readers ­traditionally perform well and in ­considerable numbers. White in the diagram, ­playing as usual up the board, is to play and checkmate in two moves, against any black defence.

The puzzle is the first stage of the annual Winton British Solving Championship, organised by the British Chess Problem Society and sponsored by the investment ­managers ­Winton. This competition is only open to ­British ­residents and entry is free. To take part, simply send White’s first move by post to Nigel Dennis, Boundary House, 230 Greys Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 1QY, or by email to winton@theproblemist.org.

US grandmaster scored biggest success of his career at the Grand Chess Tour Rapid & Blitz and is close to world top 10

Hans Niemann, the controversial US grandmaster whose game with Magnus Carlsen at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup led to cheating allegations, a $100m lawsuit, an out-of-court settlement, the Netflix documentary Untold: Chess Mates, and a forthcoming book, scored the most important success of his career last weekend.

Niemann, competing as a wildcard, won the $50,000 (£37,400) first prize at the Warsaw Rapid and Blitz in Poland, ahead of the US champion and world No 3, Fabiano Caruana, India’s reigning world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, and the Candidates winner, Javokhir Sindarov. The event was part of the St Louis-backed Grand Chess Tour, which ends in August and includes the prestigious Sinquefield Cup.

The world No 1 lost to Jorden van Foreest, but squeezed into a tie for first and won the blitz playoff

The world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, made a rare return to classical chess this week at the annual TePe Sigeman tournament in Malmö, Sweden, squeezing through to a blitz playoff in Thursday’s final round after Turkey’s 14-year-old talent Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus blundered fatally in the late stages after reaching a drawn position.

Carlsen tied on 5/7 with India’s Arjun Erigaisi and won the blitz playoff 2-1. This was the final sudden death game.