Chess · Worth knowing

The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League fourth season ran from September 5-13, featuring six mixed-gender franchise teams competing in a double round-robin preliminary stage followed by finals. Each team fields six players in fixed board order: the highest-rated Icon player on board one, men on boards two and three, women on boards four and five, and a junior born in 2004 or later on board six. Games use rapid time controls of 20 minutes per side with a 2-second increment from move 41. The competition includes elite players such as Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Alexandra Kosteniuk across franchises like Alpine APL Pipers, Ganges Grandmasters, and CheQ Mumbai Masters.

David Anton Guijarro leads the Legends & Prodigies tournament in Madrid after seven rounds with a one-point advantage over defending champion Faustino Oro, who suffered his first defeat when losing to Diego Flores in round six. Anton Guijarro has drawn consistently, including both games in rounds six and seven against Jose Cuenca Jimenez and Jose Martinez Alcantara respectively, maintaining his composure in a Queen's Gambit and an Italian Game. Oro bounced back from his morning loss with a win over Ivan Sokolov and a hard-fought draw against Cuenca Jimenez in a French Defence, though he had squandered a promising attacking position. The two leaders face each other in an upcoming round with three rounds remaining, giving the twelve-year-old Oro a direct opportunity to close the gap as Black.

The ISSO National Games Chess Competition 2026 in Ahmedabad brought together 425+ young chess players from 100+ schools across 10+ states, competing in Under 11, Under 14, Under 17 and Under 19 categories. Indian Chess Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa inaugurated the two-day national championship, which tested fundamental competitive chess skills including concentration, decision-making and composure under pressure. The tournament emphasized how chess develops qualities like discipline, confidence and resilience that extend beyond the game itself, while providing participants the opportunity to compete at the national level and build connections with players from different schools and states.