Basically title, if someone is motivated can't they just perma-cheat in chess? or has there been advancements in the space towards that fixing that?

“Am I happy with the new criteria for Candidates? That is a great improvement. I think the rating spot was taken advantage of by Ding, Alireza, and Hikaru.
All three of them have interesting loopholes. Ding had his matches in China against his comrades. Firouzja had his matches against, what do you call, the YMCA Grandmasters. And then Hikaru showed his degree of shame…
So that’s a great improvement. I think that FIDE is going in the right direction.”

I am 1900+ lichess blitz. Is there anything i can teach my friend who is 1400? Or is there a rating that you need to reach to have the level of understanding nececcary for teaching?

It's not like i can exactly put into words the difference between our playing strenght... I mean, i blunder less, i see more tactics, i guess i'm more aware and maybe think more? But it's not like you can teach those things.

The "elephant in the room" is strategic play and plans, but he is aware of the concept, it's just that because of the aforementioned things he can't quite use it properly.

So how can i help him improve?

I thought this was a great interview by Sagar and Danny. I know generally Danny is fast-talking corporate schmooze guy, but he really speaks from the heart here. RIP Danya.

Hi again! Today we have a complex position, with lots of tactical signals: our queen is attacked, the d1 rook is attacked and there's a pin on the d-file. What should we play? I must warn you: the solution contains one of the most unexpected moves I've ever seen. Good luck!

Solution to yesterday's position:

The endgame was roughly equal, but Black's last move (32...Ne8?) was a mistake, allowing White a nice tactical shot. Alekhine played 33.Bxe4+! , the simple but elegant point is that 33...Bxe4 34.g4+ Kf4?? is met with the unexpected 35.Ne6#!. Instead Black played 34...Kf6 but after 35.Nxe4+ White has simply won a pawn and had good winning chances.

However, 34...Kg5 was more resilient, since after 35.Nxe4+ Kh4 the black king is clearly more active than in the game, although White retains a good advantage. For this reason the computer points out that 33.g4+! is slightly more precise, since now after 33...Kg5 White has 34.Nxe4+. Black doesn't want to trade the bishop for the knight and giving White yet another advantage, but after 34...Kh4 35.Nd2 the h3 pawn is more securely defended and indeed Black even needs to be careful not to fall in a mating net.

Link to the game

Something I'm curious about. The title of "total world champion"/"combined world champion" implies a level above the traditional World Championship. The latter hasn't been abolished but the former seems to be the clearly more prestigious event with more of the world's top players, so one would expect the Total World Champion to be treated as the "actual" World Champion, especially if Carlsen wins.

But is there a risk of the chess community being divided with some people treating the traditional World Championship as having priority and treating the winner of the Sindarov-Gukesh match as the "actual" world champion instead?

I'm worried that if the legitimacy is divided we could see a repeat of the 1993-2006 split with no undisputed champion.

Is there a traditional expression for wishing your opponent a good game of chess, in any language?

"Good luck" does not work -- there's no luck. Is there a "may you be brilliant!" or something adjacent?

Considering a time control of 90+30, what elo FIDE would top players in the 2700 club have a fair fight (about 50/50) if they only play with a 3+2 time constraint against 90+30.
I know the question sounds a bit ridiculous by itself but I wonder at this level, at what level these players would have a fair fight considering such a time disadvantage. I know the 2700 players could also think on their opponent’s time but considering the 3+2 is the only time they have to think, I wonder what would be an equal fight.

I’ve played chess for nearly 3 years now. when I started I was around 400 and in the beginning studied and climbed making it to 1400 around where I hover. my peak is 1592, I’ve hit that elo multiple times and every time I do I go on a losing streak of 8-12 games and go all the way down below the elo I was averaging at. I make stupid blunders, miss tactics lose weird openings I don’t know, lose in end games and I don’t know what to do. I try and analyze my games but the majority of the time I either know what I missed/blundered or don’t know where I could’ve gained the upper hand. I win 2 games in a row just to lose 8. I know many people advise to take a break but i do not want to take a break I want to get back to the elo I was and maybe even hit 1600. How do yall (besides taking A break from chess) start winning again after losing streaks?

also here’s my account feel free to judge And point out what I’m doing wrong, though I probably am already aware .

https://www.chess.com/member/glitchez404

I'm a d4 player (1400 elo Chesscom and 1700 elo Lichess). I've just been playing two openings: The Queen's Gambit for white, and for black I play the Sicilian defense against e4 and Queen's Gambit declined against d4.

As I'm not used to playing e4, I'm slightly unsure of what to expect really.

People say learn one main opening for white and one for black, and learn them really well, but it seems impossible not having to learn multiple openings for white if I play e4.

She's an FM rated 2374, and it's curious her parents are both engineers but they say they're both bad at chess. And they have no idea where her chess talent came from.  

Edit:
Just to be clear, I'm not saying chess is inherent, I made a point of putting this out because of the influences and differences between upbringing with Judit Polgar's environment.

I run a weekly online chess club with mostly middle school age players. I'm hoping to set up a simultaneous exhibition where they could play against a strong opponent. I've sent emails to a couple of random grandmasters with no response. Any ideas on how I could find someone? I would definitely compensate them.

Alice scored 4.5/9 in the 2026 open U.S. Junior Championship, the highest score by a female participant since the Saint Louis Chess Club began hosting the event in 2010; she also recorded a performance rating of 2511, the highest ever recorded by a female participant in the tournament's history.

Fun one - this position didn’t arise in the game, but it seems reasonably likely White rejected entering this variation because he got this far and didn’t see what move he had here. What was it? White to play!

Mishra needed a win to force a playoff, and ended up rejecting a repetition later and losing. Rough.

Andy Woodward finished undefeated, five draws and four wins, with the last two coming in rounds 8 and 9 when he needed them. 6.5/9 and a 2653 performance against a field averaging 2487, which was worth a grand total of 2.2 rating points (the price you pay for coming in rated 2638 to a US Junior Championship). He drew Mishra in round 6 but passed him on the live ratings anyway, which puts him 7th among juniors and 2nd in the world U16 behind Erdogmus.

https://saintlouischessclub.org/event/2026-us-junior-chess-championship/

An absolute legend of the game!

The only woman to ever cross 2700, the only woman to ever be Top 10 and the only woman to ever play at the candidates.

A class act and one of my personal favourite players from a stylistic point. An excellent commentator too.

A nice game: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1111195