Chess · Worth knowing

Bodhana Sivanandan, at just 11 years old, became the youngest Woman Grandmaster in chess history after her performance at the Women's Olympiad in Samarkand. Playing on top board for England despite being the youngest competitor, she scored 8 points across 11 rounds, including draws against strong opposition like European Women's Champion Anastasiia Hnatyshyn and World Cup winner Nana Dzagnidze, with only one loss to Peru's Deysi Cori. Her achievement broke the previous record held by Kateryna Lagno, who earned the WGM title at age 12 in 2002, and she finished 13th overall on board one while helping England improve five places in the team standings.

Timur Turlov, newly elected FIDE President and billionaire businessman from Kazakhstan, outlined his vision for chess in an extensive interview. He emphasized that chess is massively undervalued as a sponsorship opportunity, noting that intellectuals, bankers, and politicians form a high-quality audience that businesses overlook with relatively small investment budgets. Turlov's central argument is that FIDE governs professional chess competently but fails to capture value from the game's online migration, and he proposes building integrated digital infrastructure—including CRM systems, chess IDs, and biometric player identification—to connect federations and online platforms while improving ratings integrity. Beyond administration, Turlov's ambitions include pursuing Olympic recognition for chess, making broadcasts more visually compelling through AI-assisted animation to attract non-players, and providing financial stability by underwriting FIDE's calendar to enable two-year event planning. He has invested over $75 million into chess through his companies, including the acquisition of ChessBase, and has overseen Kazakhstan's chess programs which produced 162 international medals in 2025, with standout players like Edgar Mamedov becoming the country's youngest grandmaster at fourteen. Turlov frames his approach through ecosystem thinking—viewing chess as needing an integrated digital spine connecting schools, clubs, tournaments, and professional play—while acknowledging that success requires strong relationships and community involvement rather than top-down mandate.