Chess · Worth knowing

Javokhir Sindarov extended his lead at the Candidates Tournament in Cyprus to two points with four rounds remaining after defeating Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu in round ten. Sindarov, now with six wins and no losses across ten rounds, employed aggressive tactical play to exploit a critical error from Praggnanandhaa (22...Bd7??), demonstrating the strong preparation and confident middlegame technique that has characterized his tournament performance. Anish Giri remains in sole second place after drawing with Hikaru Nakamura, while Fabiano Caruana and Wei Yi also drew their games. Sindarov's six wins already exceed the largest winning totals in previous Candidates Tournament editions played as double round-robins, positioning him on track to surpass the typical winner's benchmark of eight-and-a-half to nine-and-a-half points even if he draws all remaining games.

A 420-player Regional Chess Championship was held in Jakarta on October 3–4, 2026, organized by the All-Indonesia Chess Association to select athletes for the National Championship in Banten. The event offered a 100 million rupiah prize pool and served as a qualifying tournament for Jakarta's delegation to the 51st National Chess Championship (October 23–29, 2026). Jakarta is the defending national champion from 2025, having won six gold, two silver, and six bronze medals at the previous nationals in Mamuju. The championship highlighted emerging talent, including Laysa, a young Jakarta player who recently earned the Woman Grandmaster title at the Chess Olympiad in Uzbekistan—making her Indonesia's latest grandmaster addition to the competitive scene.

Evren Ucok, a successful entrepreneur and chess supporter, has invested over $5 million over three years supporting promising young chess players through coaching, tournament expenses, chess camps, sports psychology, nutrition and fitness programs. He believes chess is an effective cure for the attention crisis affecting today's youth, as it forces players to calculate and reason rather than passively consume content, and estimates that 50-100 hours of competitive chess meaningfully improves concentration, humility and logical reasoning in children with permanent effects. The program has produced several remarkable young talents: Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, a Turkish prodigy now 15, became the youngest person in history to exceed 2700 Elo rating at super-GM level and world No. 1 junior; Luca Protopopescu became the youngest to cross 2200 Elo at age 9; Bodhana Sivanandan broke a 1988 record by becoming the youngest girl to defeat a 2600+ rated GM at age 11 and won the British Women's Championship; Marc Llari won the U12 World Cup undefeated and earned his first IM norm; Christian Glöckler won the Biel International Chess Festival Masters Open with his first GM norm; and Atilla Kuru secured his third and final GM norm at 15, becoming Turkey's latest grandmaster. Aydin Suleymanli reached the top 50 globally at No. 45 after defeating Magnus Carlsen and others. Beyond competitive results, the program emphasizes chess's role in building human connection and concentration in an AI-driven world.