The Opening: Daily Chess News from First Look Chess

First Look Chess
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Daily chess news in about five minutes: the results, the players and the decisions that matter to American chess, every morning. The Opening is the audio edition of First Look Chess, a daily newsletter for players, organizers, coaches and serious fans. Each episode covers the top five stories of the day — the Olympiad and the world championship cycle, the US Championships and US Chess national events, norms and rating milestones, federation news and the business of chess — drawn from the newsletter's morning edition, with facts checked against sources before they are read. The full edition, with links, games and PGNs to download, is available for subscribers at firstlookchess.com. Read by a synthetic voice. Powered by AI, guided by human expertise. (Note: Some names will be mispronounced at first; we fix each one as we hear it.)

  1. 14h ago

    The Opening, Oct 26: Andrew Tang shares first at Eastern Chess Congress

    Every story in this episode is in the First Look Chess newsletter, with the links, the games, and the PGNs to download: firstlookchess.com In this episode: GM Andrew Tang, No. 21 on the US Chess overall list, shared first in the Premier section of the 30th Annual Eastern Chess Congress in Princeton, New Jersey, on 4.5 points with Jianchao Zhou and Viktor Matviishen, in a 432-player event that led a weekend in which US Chess newly rated 102 events across 29 states. GM Alexander Ivanov (FIDE 2365), No. 17 on the US Chess Age 50+ list, shared first in the Greater Boston Open's Premier section on 3 points with Jerry Chen and Hrishikesh Sai Vedula, who beat WIM Kateryna Odnorozhenko (2084) of Ukraine along the way; at the 54th Capps Memorial, GM Christopher Yoo (2588), No. 3 on the Under 21 list, beat Vivaan Pavuluri and FM Andrew Boekhoff on Sunday to stay perfect. Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown opens Tuesday in St. Louis with Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Javokhir Sindarov playing 18 rapid games over three days for $425,000, under rules that bar draw offers before Black's 60th move and make a last-day win worth three first-day ones — Sindarov's final event before the world championship match, ChessBase India notes; the outlets split on the clock, 10 minutes plus 5 seconds a move at ChessBase, 15 plus 10 at ChessBase India. Asked by the Times of India to size up the Geneva match a month out, Ian Nepomniachtchi called Sindarov "of course a clear favourite" and said Gukesh's progress over the past couple of years has been negative, while Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian and Wei Yi each argued against writing the champion off. The English Chess Federation, which supports Bodhana Sivanandan, names the full grandmaster title as her next target after her International Master qualification in Budva at 11 years and seven months, with international director Malcolm Pein crediting Rishi Sunak and Rachel Reeves for government support of chess through the DCMS and setting the FIDE Swiss at the 16th London Chess Classic as her next event; across the table, Luxembourg's Gambit Bonnevoie calls its women's silver "a historic first" for the country's sport. The Opening is written from the day's evidence and checked by the same fact rules as the newsletter; the voice is synthetic. Powered by AI, guided by human expertise.

  2. 1d ago

    The Opening, Oct 25: Hikaru Nakamura takes a seventh straight Bullet Brawl

    Every story in this episode is in the First Look Chess newsletter, with the links, the games, and the PGNs to download: firstlookchess.com In this episode: Hikaru Nakamura won Bullet Brawl for a seventh consecutive Saturday, scoring 178 points to finish ahead of 218 titled players after a 23-game winning streak early in the arena — his 72nd win in the event by chess.com's count — while runner-up Oleksandr Bortnyk, in an interview with Chess with Mustreader, said Magnus Carlsen remains the best online blitz player and placed Nakamura no higher than second or third. US Chess newly rated 90 events across 28 states, with a median size of 19, led by Saturday scholastics of 269 players in La Feria, Texas, and 264 at CIS Bronx Chess Day in New York; in California, San Diego Chess & Social's Chula Vista chapter draws 30 to 40 players to a brewery every Wednesday and the club's paid membership has passed 500, the Star-News reports; and GM Christopher Yoo won both of his opening games at the 54th Capps Memorial. FIDE's final report on the European Club Cup, won Friday by Bayegan Pendik over Novy Bor on tiebreak as reported here Saturday, puts the Budva field at a record 130 teams, 108 open and 22 women's, against 122 in Rhodes in 2025, and names the board winners: Marc-Andria Maurizzi, Nihal Sarin, FM Lennert Lenaerts, Benjamin Gledura, Ihor Samunenkov and Volodar Murzin on boards one to six of the open, and Aleksandra Goryachkina, Humpy Koneru, Nurgyul Salimova and Gulnar Mammadova in the women's event. The outlets' numbers for Bodhana Sivanandan, who completed the requirements for the International Master title in Budva on Friday as reported here Saturday, split two ways — a rating of 2406 at the Daily Jagran against a live 2413 at ChessBase's German site, a 2465 performance at Newsband and Vietnam.vn against 2504 at the German site — and the Daily Jagran's table of the 10 youngest IMs of either sex ranks America's Abhimanyu Mishra third, at 10 years, 9 months and 3 days in 2019, behind Roman Shogdzhiev and Faustino Oro, with Sivanandan seventh. Al Ain will host the fourth World Junior U20 Rapid & Blitz Championships from November 1 to 7 — four world titles across rapid and blitz, open and girls — organized by the Al Ain Chess and Mind Games Club together with FIDE and the UAE Chess Federation, GulfToday reports; the organizers hold a press conference at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium on Tuesday, October 27, the day FIDE's extended registration and payment deadline, carried here, expires. The Opening is written from the day's evidence and checked by the same fact rules as the newsletter; the voice is synthetic. Powered by AI, guided by human expertise.

  3. 2d ago

    The Opening, Oct 24: Lichess ends its boycott of US Chess

    Every story in this episode is in the First Look Chess newsletter, with the links, the games, and the PGNs to download: firstlookchess.com In this episode: Lichess has ended its 2023 boycott of US Chess and will resume official broadcasts of the federation's events, saying the changes it wanted have been made — the confirmation of the resumption reported here Thursday from an r/chess post — as RookReview reports from Lichess's announcement. Bodhana Sivanandan, 11, completed the requirements for the International Master title on Friday in Budva, beating WIM Viktoria Johansson with Black in the last round of the European Club Cup for her third norm at 11 years, seven months and 16 days — younger than Judit Polgar was when she took the title in 1988, chess.com reports, and the seventh-youngest player of all time to qualify. Bayegan Pendik of Turkey won the European Club Cup in Budva on Friday, beating holders SuperChess Romania 3.5-2.5 in the final round as Anish Giri beat Nodirbek Abdusattorov on top board and Amin Tabatabaei beat Haik Martirosyan; Novy Bor finished level on 13 match points after beating Elektroprivreda 4.5-1.5 and took silver on tiebreak, Rishon LeZion A bronze — and both Americans on the open relay won their last games. Hans Niemann won Freestyle Friday on October 23 with nine points, taking the tiebreak over Sina Movahed after beating him in round 10 — his first win in the Freestyle Friday Championship era and third overall, chess.com reports — a day after Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana won two of the three 3 0 Thursday events, Nakamura opening with Lionel Messi's "GOAT Horns" line in every game as Black. FIDE's Council has extended its waiver of rating fees for all rapid and blitz tournaments through 2027, a concession FIDE says has spared federations close to €2 million since it began in 2021; at home US Chess newly rated 42 events across 19 states, and Bryan Enming Lin, No. 1 on the US Chess Under 16 list, shared first in the Marshall FIDE Blitz. The Opening is written from the day's evidence and checked by the same fact rules as the newsletter; the voice is synthetic. Powered by AI, guided by human expertise.

  4. 3d ago

    The Opening, Oct 23: Wesley So takes the national title

    Every story in this episode is in the First Look Chess newsletter, with the links, the games, and the PGNs to download: firstlookchess.com In this episode: Wesley So is U.S. Champion for a fourth time, beating Fabiano Caruana 1.5-0.5 in Thursday's rapid playoff in St. Louis — a draw with Black, then a win in 33 moves after Caruana's gambit misfired — to take the title and $56,000 one day after his last-round loss to Sam Sevian had let Caruana catch him on 7/11; it is So's first national title since 2021 and ends Caruana's run of four straight. The November US Chess rating supplement arrived with 1,320,281 names on the rating list, 5,873 more than the October list; among top-100 players the biggest regular-rating moves are Elizabeth C Smith's 128-point climb to 1543 on the Women 50+ list and Abigail Zhou's 106 points to 2096 on Girls Under 16, where three more listed players gained between 88 and 100 points. Three teams share the lead on 11/12 going into Friday's final round of the European Club Cup in Budva after SuperChess Romania and Novy Bor drew their top-table match 3-3 and Bayegan Pendik beat Tuxera Aquaprofit Nagykanizsai 3.5-2.5 despite Pranesh M beating Anish Giri on board one with a bishop sacrifice Giri took after four and a half minutes' thought; Bodhana Sivanandan, 11, plays Friday for a third IM norm that would break Judit Polgar's female age record for the title, set 38 years ago, the Guardian says. Jeroen van den Berg, tournament director of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament since 1999, will step down after the 89th edition in January 2027 and hand the Wijk aan Zee event to GM Erwin l'Ami from 2028, the organizers announced; the two will run the coming edition together, and van den Berg stays on as an adviser until January 2030. Both Americans on the European Club Cup relay won on Thursday, Gennadie Slavin (FIDE 2201) beating IM Pavel Govciyan (2408) of France and GM Kirk Ghazarian (2530) also scoring, while FM Evan Sammons beat IM Vadym Petrovskiy of Germany at the Annemasse Masters; at home US Chess newly rated 42 events across 25 states, led by a 333-player scholastic in Pharr, Texas, and three US Chess outreach grants are among four grants worth $3,000 for McAllen elementary chess programs. The Opening is written from the day's evidence and checked by the same fact rules as the newsletter; the voice is synthetic. Powered by AI, guided by human expertise.

  5. 4d ago

    The Opening, Oct 22: Rachael Li is US Women’s Champion

    Every story in this episode is in the First Look Chess newsletter, with the links, the games, and the PGNs to download: firstlookchess.com In this episode: Rachael Li, 16, is U.S. Women's Champion in her debut, drawing Anna Zatonskih in round 11 to finish on 8½/11, half a point ahead of Alice Lee, who beat Anna Sargsyan with Black on demand; Irina Krush beat Tatev Abrahamyan for sole third, and Li leaves St. Louis with $45,000, a first IM norm and a FIDE Women's World Cup place she shares with Lee. Wesley So lost to last-placed Sam Sevian in the final round of the U.S. Championship, ending a 48-game unbeaten run in the event, while Fabiano Caruana beat Awonder Liang on demand to tie him on 7/11 and force a rapid playoff Thursday at 12 p.m. in St. Louis, 1 p.m. ET; Jeffery Xiong beat Hans Niemann to share third with Grigoriy Oparin, who drew Ray Robson. Novy Bor beat second seed Alkaloid 4-2 in round five of the European Club Cup in Budva — David Anton over Aravindh Chithambaram, Pentala Harikrishna over Yu Yangyi in 103 moves — and meets holders SuperChess Romania on Thursday with both on 10/10 match points after SuperChess beat Vasyl Ivanchuk's Nitra 5.5-0.5; Nihal Sarin took a draw in a winning position against Wei Yi, and Vaclav Finek, 16, beat Pranav Venkatesh. Malaysia's Youth and Sports Ministry says it will not reverse the exclusion of an Israeli player from next month's FIDE World Amateur Chess Championship in Klang whatever the criticism, a source told Scoop — the first Malaysian government response since the case was carried here Sunday — as Israel's Foreign Ministry demanded on the country's official X account that FIDE strip Malaysia of hosting rights and move the event; FIDE has not commented publicly, Algemeiner reports. Kazakhstan topped the medal table at the FIDE World U7-U17 Championships in Roquetas de Mar with seven golds, two silvers and four bronzes among 721 players from 82 countries, FIDE reports; American Siddharth Singh, the rating favorite in the Open Under 15, was one of five players level with the silver medalist on 8/11 but lost the bronze on tiebreak to Vietnam's CM Manh Duc Nguyen, and US Chess newly rated 33 events across 16 states. The Opening is written from the day's evidence and checked by the same fact rules as the newsletter; the voice is synthetic. Powered by AI, guided by human expertise.

  6. 5d ago

    The Opening, Oct 21: Wesley So a draw from a fourth title

    Every story in this episode is in the First Look Chess newsletter, with the links, the games, and the PGNs to download: firstlookchess.com In this episode: Wesley So drew Hans Niemann in under an hour in round 10 of the U.S. Championship and leads on 7/10, a full point clear of Fabiano Caruana and Grigoriy Oparin, who also drew; a draw against Sam Sevian on Wednesday gives him clear first and a fourth title, while Sam Shankland beat Sevian and Levon Aronian beat Ray Robson in the round's two decisive games. Rachael Li beat Rose Atwell in round 10 to reach 8/10 in the U.S. Women's Championship, a point clear of Alice Lee, who also won, and needs only a draw against Anna Zatonskih on Wednesday to take the title outright in her debut; five of the six games were decisive, and Tatev Abrahamyan gave up a bishop, a knight and a rook to mate Zatonskih. Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Anish Giri and Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus — three of the five highest-rated players in Budva, chess.com notes — all lost in round four of the European Club Cup: Abdusattorov to Aydin Suleymanli, Giri to Pranav V and Erdogmus to Karthikeyan Murali, the Indian pair carrying Montenegro's Elektroprivreda to a 3-3 draw with top seed Bayegan Pendik; all three Americans on the relay won. Hikaru Nakamura won Titled Tuesday on October 20 with 9.5/11, beating Alireza Firouzja in the final round and taking the tiebreak over Dmitry Andreikin and Sina Movahed, both also on 9.5 — his first win in the series since May, chess.com reports, and one that extended his lead in the 2026-27 CCT standings. FIDE has asked its Constitutional Commission whether tournaments played inside Russia during the Chess Federation of Russia's suspension can be rated, a spokesperson told World Chess, leaving the Russian Rapid and Blitz Championships in Sochi — both individual titles won by Daniil Dubov — unrecognized for now after a women's team from occupied Donetsk played the team events over a Ukrainian protest; meanwhile Israel's ambassador to Bulgaria and Susan Polgar have publicly pressed FIDE over the Klang exclusion carried here since Sunday. The Opening is written from the day's evidence and checked by the same fact rules as the newsletter; the voice is synthetic. Powered by AI, guided by human expertise.

  7. 6d ago

    The Opening, Oct 20: Rachael Li beats Nazi Paikidze to lead

    Every story in this episode is in the First Look Chess newsletter, with the links, the games, and the PGNs to download: firstlookchess.com In this episode: Rachael Li, 16, beat Nazi Paikidze in round nine to lead the U.S. Women's Championship alone on 7/9, a full point clear of Irina Krush and Alice Lee, and has secured her first IM norm with two rounds to spare, chess.com reports; Krush beat Lee, and all six games were decisive. Wesley So held Fabiano Caruana to a draw with Black in round nine of the U.S. Championship and leads on 6.5/9, a full point clear of Caruana and Grigoriy Oparin, who beat Sam Shankland in the round's only decisive game; two rounds remain, and So must get past Hans Niemann and Sam Sevian. Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, 15, beat Zbynek Hracek on his European Club Cup debut and rose to world No. 15 on the live list, chess.com reports, as Anish Giri and Nodirbek Abdusattorov also won their first games in Budva and 11 of the top 12 seeds reached round four on perfect match scores; Jorden van Foreest lost in one move to a 2409-rated IM. Players from Syria, Lebanon and Algeria are under orders to forfeit against Israeli opponents at the FIDE World Championships U7-U17 in Roquetas de Mar, EL PAÍS reports, and a Syrian boy played and won after chief arbiter Panagiotis Nikolopoulos refused his federation's written request to stop the game — a second Israeli-access dispute in the wire after the Klang exclusion carried here since Sunday. TWIC #1667 arrived with 8,561 games from 52 events, confirming GM Jianchao Zhou's 6.5/7 win at the 5th Skyline Open in Dulles, Virginia, UT Dallas-A's team title at the Texas Collegiate Superfinals in Brownsville, Fabiano Caruana's Titled Tuesday and 3 0 Thursday wins last week, and Vahap Şanal's 7/7 sweep of the 36th NATO Championship. The Opening is written from the day's evidence and checked by the same fact rules as the newsletter; the voice is synthetic. Powered by AI, guided by human expertise.

  8. Oct 19

    The Opening, Oct 19: Favorites keep winning at the European Club Cup

    Every story in this episode is in the First Look Chess newsletter, with the links, the games, and the PGNs to download: firstlookchess.com In this episode: The favorites kept winning in round two of the European Club Cup in Budva: Wei Yi, Arjun Erigaisi and Richard Rapport moved to 2/2, top seed Bayegan Pendik beat Crvena Zvezda 5-1 even though Temur Kuybokarov took down its leader Amin Tabatabaei on top board, and Alkaloid and holders SuperChess Romania both won 6-0; two Americans are on the broadcast, GM Kirk Ghazarian the higher-rated. Malaysia has kept two registered Israeli players out of FIDE's World Amateur Championship in Klang, November 4-13, The Jerusalem Post and JFeed report, confirming the question carried here Sunday from a Times of Israel headline; the published participant list omits both names, and no FIDE statement is in today's wire. The German Chess Federation's arbiters' commission is moving toward a general ban on hearing aids at its tournaments, including the amateur championship series, on anti-cheating grounds, and its inclusion officer Gert Schulz has vowed to stop it; a working group of the federation's new inclusion commission has taken up the dispute, the federation reports. US Chess newly rated 106 events across 29 states, led by a 345-player Hunter October Tournament in New York and the 194-player Eastern Class Championship in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, where Linxi Zhu, No. 6 on the US Chess Under 16 list, shared the Master section; Jason S Liang, No. 9 on the Under 21 list, shared the top section of Georgia's 114-player class championship, and Siddharth Singh beat an Egyptian IM at the World Under 15. Saxo Bank has signed Magnus Carlsen, with Lando Norris and seven other athletes, for an investor-psychology campaign announced Monday with financial terms undisclosed, Finance Magnates and FX News Group report; Gukesh's representation deal with OBT Sports & Entertainment, carried here since Thursday, recirculated at Sportscape Magazine. The Opening is written from the day's evidence and checked by the same fact rules as the newsletter; the voice is synthetic. Powered by AI, guided by human expertise.

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About

Daily chess news in about five minutes: the results, the players and the decisions that matter to American chess, every morning. The Opening is the audio edition of First Look Chess, a daily newsletter for players, organizers, coaches and serious fans. Each episode covers the top five stories of the day — the Olympiad and the world championship cycle, the US Championships and US Chess national events, norms and rating milestones, federation news and the business of chess — drawn from the newsletter's morning edition, with facts checked against sources before they are read. The full edition, with links, games and PGNs to download, is available for subscribers at firstlookchess.com. Read by a synthetic voice. Powered by AI, guided by human expertise. (Note: Some names will be mispronounced at first; we fix each one as we hear it.)

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