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French Chess Federation Finally Loses Patience With Firouzja, Its Superstar Iranian ÉmigréAlireza Firouzja, the youngest player ever to have passed 2800 FIDE, won't be playing at the 2026 Olympiad this September. It's hardly surprising.May 13, 2026·4 min read

Kramnik Has Been Talking About Cheating For Years. Now Comes The Math.The former World Champion publishes Part One of his fair-play detection methodology.May 12, 2026·2 min read

'We Are Not Friends': Gukesh And Sindarov Say Very Different Things About Each OtherThey are about to contend a world title match, having known each other for at least a decade. But there seems to be absolutely no love lost between Gukesh and Sindarov.May 11, 2026·5 min read

Niemann The Netflix Star Is Finally Delivering On His Promise (And Not Everyone Will Like That)What a week it's been for the king of controversy.May 11, 2026·3 min read

World Champion Gukesh Loses His Cool: Now He's Knocking Pieces OverIndia's World Champion Gukesh D had another rocky start to a tournament—this time finding himself involved in a kerfuffle with Hans Niemann.May 6, 2026·4 min read

Before the Anal Beads, There Was a Wig. Meet Chess's Original Computer Cheat.Netflix just made a documentary about the biggest cheating scandal in chess history. It started the story thirty years too late.April 25, 2026·6 min read

Did Dubov Beat the World's Best Prep'd Grandmaster From His Bed? He Did.Daniil Dubov beat Javokhir Sindarov — the reigning Candidates champion, the most prepared player in chess, the man with a World Championship match already on his calendar — three games to zero on Thursday. He did this from his bed.April 24, 2026·2 min read

Anish Giri Asks FIDE to Pay for Its Own CircuitAnish Giri went on ChessBase India this week and asked, on camera, if FIDE might consider paying for the tournament series that bears its name.April 20, 2026·3 min read

Ding Liren Is Back: World Champion Returns To Classical Action This MonthHe's been commentating on the Candidates and has tournaments lined-up. But in what condition will China's former world champion be in when he returns?April 8, 2026·3 min read

Uzbekistan Has a New National Hero. Please, Nobody Tell the President Yet.Javokhir Sindarov is 5.5 out of 6 at the FIDE Candidates. A country of 36 million is holding its breath. April 4, 2026·2 min read

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Chess Terms

Term of the day

Chess Pin

A pinned piece cannot move without exposing a more valuable one behind it.

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One move, two threats: a fork attacks two pieces at once, and only one can be saved.

The reverse of a pin: the valuable piece is hit first and the one behind it falls.

Discovered Attack

A piece steps aside and uncovers an attack from the piece it was blocking.

Back Rank Checkmate

Mate on the last rank: the king's own pawns leave it nowhere to run.

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