World Chess News
Chess Rising Stars

Leaders emerge at European Chess Club Cup. Alkaloid Skopje and Cercle d’Echecs Monte-Carlo are the leaders of the Open and Women’s sections, respectively, after five rounds of play at the 2016 European Club Cup in Novi Sad, Serbia.

Alkaloid defeated the strong team Mednyi Vsadnik from St.Petersburg by 3,5-2,5. The loss of Ding Liren to Peter Svidler was overturned by Dmitry Andreikin and Yuriy Kryvorucko.
european-club-cup-trophies-960x675
Syberia remains in contention to defend the last year’s title after scoring against Ashdod. On the shared third place are as many as eight teams with 8 points each. The remaining two rounds promise to be very exciting!

European Chess Club Cup 2016

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World Chess News
Jan 20, 2024

Chess Calendar 2024

Brace yourselves for an exciting year on the chessboard (and online).

2024 will be the year of the Chess Olympiad, Candidates and Women Candidates, amongst other top level events! Whom are you rooting for?

2023 Calendar 

 

January

Roquetas Chess Festival | January 2nd – 7th

9-round Swiss classical tournament held in Roquetas de Mar, Spain.

Featuring GMs Karen H. Grigoryan, Li Min Peng and Vitaliy Bernadskiy among others.

Official Website | Broadcast

 

European Women’s Blitz Championship 2023 | January 12th

13-round Swiss blitz tournament held in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Featuring GMs Alexandra Kosteniuk, Bella Khotenashvili and Antoaneta Stefanova among others.

Official Website | Broadcast

 

European Women’s Rapid Championship 2023 | January 13th – 14th

11-round Swiss rapid tournament held in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Featuring GMs Pia Cramling, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Bella Khotenashvili among others.

Official Website | Broadcast

 

Charlotte Open | January 13th – 15th

6-round Swiss classical tournament held in Charlotte, USA.

Featuring GMs Emilio Cordova, Jianchao Zhou and Julio Catalino Sadorra among others.

Official Website | Broadcast

 

Tata Steel Masters | January 13th – 28th

14-player round-robin rapid tournament held in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands.

Featuring GMs Ding Liren, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alireza Firouzja among others.

Official Website | Broadcast

 

Tata Steel Challengers | January 13th – 28th

14-player round-robin rapid tournament held in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands.

Featuring GMs Hans Moke Niemann, Mustafa Yilmaz and Anton Korobov among others.

Official Website | Broadcast

 

Floripa Chess Festival | January 20th – 28th

10-round Swiss classical tournament held in Florianópolis, Brazil.

Featuring GMs Aryan Tari, Alexandr Fier and Jose Fernando Cuenca Jimenez among others.

Official Website | Broadcast

 

Hit Open | January 26th – February 2nd

9-round Swiss classical tournament held in Nova Gorica, Slovenia.

Featuring GMs Ferenc Berkes, Matej Sebenik and Pier Luigi Basso among others.

Official Website | Broadcast

 

February

International Chess960 Festival | February 9th – 11th

9-round Swiss rapid tournament held in Berlin, Germany.

Featuring GMs Matthias Bluebaum, Erik Van den Doel and Dmitrij Kollars among others.

Official Website

 

Portimão Chess Festival | February 11th – 18th

9-round Swiss classical tournament held in Portimão, Portugal.

Featuring GMs Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli, Ivan Ivanisevic and Kevin Spraggett among others.

 

Chess Open Graz | February 17th – 23rd

9-round Swiss classical tournament held in Graz, Austria.

Featuring GMs Abhijeet Gupta, Jergus Pechac and Bartosz Socko among others.

Official Website

 

Cambridge International Open | February 19th – 24th

9-round Swiss classical tournament held in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Featuring GMs Michael Adams, Francesco Sonis and Sergei Tiviakov among others.

Official Website

 

FIDE World Fischer Random Championship | February 19th – 25th

8-player Group & Knockout stages rapid tournament.

Official Website

 

Cannes Festival International des Jeux | February 19th – 25th

9-round Swiss classical tournament held in Cannes, France.

Official Website

 

Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games | February 24th – March 6th

TBD

Official Website

 

Prague Chess Festival Masters | February 27th – March 7th

10-player round-robin classical tournament held in Prague, Czech Republic.

Featuring GMs Vincent Keymer, Praggnanandhaa R and Vidit Gujrathi among others.

Official Website

 

Prague Chess Festival Challengers | February 27th – March 7th

10-player round-robin classical tournament held in Prague, Czech Republic.

Featuring GMs Abhijeet Gupta, Jergus Pechac and Bartosz Socko among others.

Official Website

March

Cappelle la Grande Open | March 2nd – 8th

9-round Swiss classical tournament held in Cappelle-la-Grande, France.

Featuring GMs Maxime Lagarde, Krishnan Sasikiran and Emre Can among others.

Official Website

 

Reykjavik Open | March 15th – 21st

9-round Swiss classical tournament held in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Featuring GMs Abhimanyu Puranik, Xiangyu Xu and Matthieu Cornette among others.

Official Website

 

La Roda Open | March 27th – 31st

9-round Swiss classical tournament held in La Roda, Spain.

Featuring GMs Xiangyu Xu, Karthik Venkataraman and Carlos Daniel Albornoz Cabrera among others.

Official Website

 

Semana Santa San Vicente del Raspeig Open | March 27th – April 1st

9-round Swiss classical tournament held in San Vicente, Spain.

Featuring GMs Jules Moussard, Maksim Chigaev and Leon Luke Mendonca among others.

Official Website

 

April

 

Menorca Open | April 2nd – 7th

9-round Swiss classical tournament held in Ciutadella de Menorca, Spain.

Featuring GMs Chithambaram Aravindh, Thai Dai Van Nguyen and Aryan Chopra among others.

Official Website

 

Candidates Tournament | April 3rd – 25th

8-player double round-robin classical tournament held in Toronto, Canada.

Featuring GMs Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura among others.

Official Website

 

Women’s Candidates Tournament | April 3rd – 25th

8-player double round-robin classical tournament held in Toronto, Canada.

Featuring GMs Humpy Koneru, Aleksandra Goryachkina and Tingjie Lei among others.

Official Website

 

European Women’s Chess Championship | April 19th – 29th

11-round Swiss classical tournament held in Rhodes, Greece.

Official Website

 

World Cadet Rapid Championships | April 26th – 27th

11-round Swiss rapid tournaments held in Durrës, Albania.

Official Website

 

World Cadet Blitz Championships | April 28th

11-round Swiss blitz tournaments held in Durrës, Albania.

Official Website

 

May

 

European Senior Team Chess Championships | May 7th – 15th

9-round Swiss classical tournaments held in Brežice, Slovenia.

Official Website

 

Norway Chess | May 26th – June 7th

10-player round-robin classical tournament held in Stavanger, Norway.

Featuring GM Magnus Carlsen among others.

Official Website

 

June

 

World Junior U20 Championships | June 1st – 14th

TBD

 

Teplice Open | June 15th – 23rd

9-round Swiss classical tournament held in Teplice, Czech Republic.

Featuring GMs Karthik Venkataraman, Evgeny Postny and Jiri Stocek among others.

Official Website

 

FISU World University Championship Mind Sports | June 25th – 30th

9-round Swiss tournaments held in Entebbe, Uganda.

Official Website

 

European Individual Chess Championship | June 30th – July 13th

TBD

Official Website

 

July

 

Biel International Chess Festival | July 13th – 26th

TBD

Official Website

 

August

 

Lewis Chess Legends | August 6th – 14th

9-round Swiss classical tournament held in Trondheim, Norway.

 

European Youth Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship | August 15th – 20th

TBD

 

European Youth Chess Championship | August 21st

TBD

European Amateur Chess Championship | August 24th – September 1st

 

September

 

45th Chess Olympiad | September 10th – 23rd

TBD

 

October

 

World Youth Chess Championships | October 22nd – November 2nd

TBD

 

November

 

Amsterdam Chess Open | November 1st – 3rd

TBD

 

December

 

Shenzhen Longgang Chess Masters | December 4th – 10th

TBD

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World Chess News, CRS London Academy
Sep 03, 2026

42nd Andorra International Open Chess Tournament

On 17 July, the National Junior Chess Squad set out on an 11-day chess trip to Andorra, where 13 of us competed in the 42nd Andorra International Open Chess Tournament.  It was a nine-round tournament featuring many titled players, including GMs.  Last year, there was a 15-way tie for second place!

On the first day, I woke up before dawn at 3:30am, bleary-eyed, and travelled to Heathrow Airport.  We flew to Barcelona before embarking on a four-hour bus journey to Andorra la Vella.  It was a long day, but everything went smoothly, and we arrived safely in Europe’s highest capital city, at 1,023 metres above sea level.  The spectacular mountain scenery was breathtaking.  Our hotel was excellent, with a cool swimming pool that we all enjoyed throughout the week.  It was a great venue for our tournament.

Before each game, one of our two chess coaches helped us prepare for my opponent.  We worked on specific openings and played practice games to help us get ready for each round.

In my first round, I played an FM, who went into a complicated line of the Max Lange Gambit.  After a long game, I accepted a draw offer in a drawn rook endgame.  This first game gave me confidence going into my next eight rounds.

On the second day, before the main tournament began, we played a blitz tournament, which also featured many titled players.  I scored 4.5/9 against strong opposition which I was very happy with, and I gained FIDE rating points.  Another member of the England team scored six points and won the rating prize.

In the second round of the main tournament, I played an IM. I made a blunder in the opening but fought back, only to lose after more than 60 moves when I ran low on time.  This was the first time I had played under a time control with added time after move 40, which gave me more time to deal with the complicated endgame.

The next day, I won my third-round game, outplaying a French player in the Smith-Morra Gambit.  However, in the fourth round the following day, I sadly made a blunder in the opening and went on to lose the game. We then had a quick meal before heading straight to another blitz tournament.  I managed to beat an FM, which was one of my strongest performances in blitz.  The England juniors finished in third and fourth place. The blitz games continued past midnight and were great fun.

In rounds five and six, I drew against two players rated in the 1870s and analysed my games with my opponents afterwards. In the next round, I played another England player and sadly lost after missing a tactic. However, I learnt from my mistake and will use the experience as an opportunity to improve.

In round eight, I played well against a Latvian player but unfortunately blundered in time trouble and lost the game. In the final round, I played an 80-year-old French player and won again in the Smith-Morra Gambit.

Everyone on the England team faced strong opponents and played very well.  Some of our team members even scored wins against titled players, including IMs and FMs, while another player drew against an IM.  This was one of the strongest tournaments I have played in, and I gained a lot of valuable experience.

Outside of chess, we had lots of fun activities in the mornings before the games started at 2:30 p.m. These included swimming, football, basketball, laser tag, mountain activities and many more.  Each evening after the games finished, we would also take part in fun chess activities such as bughouse and Hand and Brain.  One evening, I even went to see Cirque du Soleil, which was great.

Overall, the entire trip was extremely exciting and a very memorable experience. I really enjoyed being part of the National Chess Junior Squad. I learnt a lot from playing against such strong opponents and gained valuable experience that I hope will help me in future tournaments.

Callum Hill

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World Chess News
Jul 17, 2026

The Gift of Chess

What if the most valuable gift you could give a child is a chess set?

Chess Rising Stars founder Maria Manelidou visited the Times Square Elite Training Camp in New York, meeting some of the strongest young players in the United States and learning more about the Impact Coaching Network and The Gift of Chess’ international mission.

Hosted in a large venue in the heart of Manhattan, the camp brought together talented junior players for intensive training sessions. The standard of play reflected the impressive strength of the group, with The Gift of Chess sharing that “almost all of the nearly 100 students currently training at our Elite Training Camp in Times Square, NYC are ranked within the Top 100 players for their respective ages in the USA.”

During the visit, Maria had the opportunity to take on several of the students in friendly games and secured three wins out of three! 

Maria also spent time speaking with Russell Makofsky about The Gift of Chess initiative and its wider objectives. The organisation’s goal is to distribute one million chess sets globally by 2030, using chess as a tool to encourage learning, connection and participation in communities around the world.

One of the highlights of the visit was Maria receiving a Gift of Chess set as a present. The design includes a distinctive detail on the king: rather than the traditional cross, it features their logo, a wrapped present.

Maria’s New York chess experience also included visits to the historic Marshall Chess Club and the famous chess tables at Washington Square Park, two locations that represent the city’s long-standing connection with the game. She particularly enjoyed playing a blitz game against a hustler in Union Square!

For Chess Rising Stars, the visit provided valuable insight into how another established junior chess programme helps young players engage with the game. We are excited to follow The Gift of Chess’ mission from afar and bring some lessons home with us. New York can teach London a thing or two!

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