Chess · Worth knowing

GM Mikhail Antipov won the 2026 Saint Louis Masters, a 9-round Swiss System tournament held February 25 to March 1 with a $100,000 prize fund. Antipov scored 7.5 points to edge out GM Fabiano Caruana (7.0 points), with GM Lorenzo Lodici taking third place at 6.5 points. The invitational featured top international grandmasters and titled players competing under a 90-minute time control with 30-second increment. IM Carissa Shiwen Yip earned top honors among women competitors with 4.5 points, while multiple categories recognized strong performances across rating bands and demographics.

Alexey Sarana and Alexander Donchenko tied for first place at the KazChess Masters 2026 in Almaty, each scoring 6 points in the 10-player round-robin tournament held June 30-July 8, 2026. Sarana, rated 2668, and Donchenko, rated 2640, both finished ahead of Igor Kovalenko (5½ points) in a category XIII event featuring top international grandmasters. The tournament showcased varied opening strategies including the Sicilian Rossolimo, Gruenfeld Defence, Ruy Lopez variations, and Queen's Gambit positions across nine rounds of classical time controls (90 minutes plus 30 seconds per move).

FIDE has approved significant format changes for the 2027 World Cup and Women's World Cup, reducing each event from 27 days to 19 days through a new two-stage structure. The competitions will feature a Swiss qualification stage (nine rounds over five days with fast classical time controls) followed by traditional knockout finals, allowing more participants to play additional games while preserving the prestige of the knockout format. Both tournaments are expanding in size—the Open World Cup grows from 206 to 224 players and the Women's World Cup from 103 to 128 players—with new qualification pathways including spots for Grand Swiss winners, continental representatives (increased to seven per continent), and a highest-rated senior player. The combined prize fund increases from USD 2.67 million to USD 3.3 million, with enhanced payouts for lower-placed finishers.