Chess · Worth knowing

The 2026 US Chess Championships took place October 9-21 at the Saint Louis Chess Club, featuring two 12-player single round-robin tournaments with classical time controls. In the open section, Wesley So finished first with 6.5 points, ahead of Fabiano Caruana (5.5 points) and other elite players including Levon Aronian, Samuel Shankland, and Jeffery Xiong. In the women's tournament, Irina Krush won with 6 points, followed by Alice Lee with 6 points as well. The combined prize fund exceeded $400,000, with rounds played from October 9-12, 14-17, and 19-21, with rest days on October 13 and 18.

Goa's 14-year-old International Master Ethan Vaz became India's 96th Grandmaster after securing his third and final norm at the Sarajevo GM Mix tournament in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he finished ahead of ten Grandmasters. Vaz earned his first norm in October 2025 at the GM4 Festival in Bijeljina, his second in January 2026 at the GM Mix 11 Fantastico tournament in Serbia, and now his third, bringing his live FIDE rating to 2522. Beyond his Grandmaster norms, Vaz has demonstrated strong competitive performance this year, winning gold medals in Rapid and Blitz at the Commonwealth Chess Championship and finishing unbeaten ahead of 18 of 19 Grandmasters at the 4th Gujarat International Open, establishing himself as one of India's rising chess talents.

The Total Chess World Championship Tour has unveiled a unified rating system combining players' classical, rapid, and blitz FIDE ratings into a single score on the Elo scale. Developed by Dr. Mehmet Mars Seven with Norway Chess, the system uses a logarithmic formula that weighs all three formats equally while accounting for the non-linear nature of Elo ratings, producing figures that retain standard Elo interpretation. Magnus Carlsen tops the inaugural ranking with 2830 points, followed by Hikaru Nakamura (2779) and Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2774). The rating will be tested during the pilot Total Chess event in Budapest from November 10-21, featuring 24 players competing in fast classic, rapid, and blitz formats, with public feedback invited through December 2026 before full implementation in 2027.