How to deal with players who refuse to play proper moves? Daniil Dubov and Ian Nepomniachtchi doing the knight dance in Samarkand. (screen grab from youtube) In round 11 of the 2023 World Blitz Chess Championship, Daniil Dubov was playing as White against Ian Nepomniachtchi. The game lasted 13 moves: 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. Nd4 Nd5 3.Nb3 Nb6 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.Ne4 Ne5 6.Ng5 Ng4 7.Nf3 Nf6 8.Ng1 Ng8 9.Nc5 Nc4 10.Na4 Na5 11.Nc3 Nc6 12.Nb1 Nb8 13.Nf3, and they agreed a draw. The arbiters analysed the moves, and, after round 12, the Chief Arbiter of the tournament, Ivan Syrovy, made the decision to reduce the p ..read more

Indian investors have put millions into the Global Chess League in Dubai. What can be learned? Will Anand Mahindra, CEO of Mahindra Tech and the biggest investor in the GCL, listen to our suggestions? (photo: Maria Emelianova / Global Chess League) The first season of the Global Chess League (GCL) is taking place in Dubai. The partnership to create it was first announced in June 2021. FIDE partners with Tech Mahindra, which is the IT arm of Mahindra Group that evolved out of the Indian automotive corporation Mahindra & Mahindra. The CEO billionaire Anand Mahindra is personally involved ..read more

The FIDE Development Fund has amended the application process and therefore opened it later than usual for 2023 with submissions open until 31 October ..read more

Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, will host the fourth and final Women Grand Prix thanks to another sponsorship of Timur Turlov’s Freedom Finance that has a subsidiary on Cyprus. With all four Russians among its participants the Ukrainians Anna and Mariya Muzychuk will likely drop out and be replaced by FIDE ..read more

The Gazprom-owned Russian Match TV has not acquired any images or broadcasting rights from FIDE for its extensive world championship coverage, as FIDE Chief Marketing and Communications Officer David Llada told ChessTech ..read more

The Connecticut-based hedge fund WorldQuant becomes partner of the Champions Chess Tour and the Chess.com world championship broadcast to promote financial education and its own World Quant Championship ..read more

Streamer king and live rating nr 5 Hikaru Nakamura together with Misfits Gaming announced the Decathlon series of 10 online events featuring different chess variants, including King of the Hill, Crazyhouse and a quiz, with altogether $46,500 in prizes, starting on 27 March with Chess960 ..read more

The Norway Chess 2023 lineup has been announced with then former world champion Magnus Carlsen, first timers Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Gukesh as well as, after a long classical chess break, Alireza Firouzja. The event takes place in Stavanger from 29 May to 9 June ..read more

Wadim Rosenstein, sponsor of the recent world class WR Masters in Düsseldorf, has presented his candidacy as President of the German Chess Federation to clean up the mess left by Ullrich Krause who will not run again in the May election after he had to acknowledge financial losses of close to €600,000. Rosenstein’s team includes Paul Meyer Dunker, President of the Berlin Chess Federation and Social Media Director of the Schachbund, who is striving for a full-time position to develop the organisation ..read more

The all-Chinese Women Candidates Final will be held in Chongqing from 27 March and also the ensuing Women World Championship from 3 July with some games in Shanghai. No sponsors or prize funds are mentioned ..read more