World Chess Weekly: War And Peace, Plus Two New Championships For 2026

Yesterday

12:10

4 min

Thumbnail for article: World Chess Weekly: War And Peace, Plus Two New Championships For 2026

The new year has got off to a flyer in the world of chess news. Headlines aplenty, albeit not about the game actually being played.

If you're feeling blown away by the changes in chess announced this week—no-one can blame you.

We started the week reporting on former World Champion GM Ding Liren's dip into inactivity on the latest FIDE rating list for standard games. It's a sad sight to see for chess fans, the Chinese star is a popular figure in the sport.

But the week quickly got more intriguing.

The Highs

On Tuesday, the world governing body FIDE announced the 16-player invite list for an upcoming pilot edition of its new version of the world title, the Total Chess World Championship.

The GM Magnus Carlsen-approved tour of events leading to a newly-minted title is due to kick off in 2027, but beforehand a Total Chess 2026 Pilot will take place in October.

The announcement was exciting. FIDE on a high—showing it can drive innovation in the sport and managing to keep Carlsen happy, at last. But what followed is exactly the opposite.

The Lows

Reports also broke that five national federations have submitted a complaint to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against FIDE.

The joint submission refers specifically to General Assembly's handling of the decision to readmit teams and regalia from Russian and Belarus into international chess events worldwide.

FIDE's ruling on that thorny issue sparked protest before Christmas. That protest is now more than words, it's a robust legal action in the highest court in sport.

The Ukrainian Chess Federation is leading the action with support from England, Norway, Estonia and Germany.

Federations taking FIDE to court is huge news, and a significant challenge to FIDE's authority. For more on what this means and what's likely to happen, read this explainer.

The Highs Again

FIDE had another big update to drop, however. On Wednesday, FIDE announced yet another version of the world title is on the way—the first official FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship, played over the "freestyle" or Fischer Random variant of the game.

And, this new title event is happening as soon as next month in Weissenhaus, Germany. Get February 13 to 15 in your diaries.

What's significant here is FIDE had been in a public war of words with Carlsen and the nascent chess organiser Freestyle Chess over a world championship event for the freestyle variant.

Freestyle Chess tried to award their own unsanctioned title, before stepped in to object. The row, which blew up this time last year, has now cooled and they parties have been busy working together to put on this new event.

Writing on X, FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky even flagged the announcement with the words, "Burying the hatchet!"

The Chess

Meanwhile, there has been an elite chess tournament going on. The 2026 Tata Steel Chess India has been taking place in Kolkata. GMs Viswanathan Anand and Nihal Sarin ended day two in the shared lead with 4.5 points out of six games.

Next week one of the highlights of the chess calendar starts: the 2026 edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee.

So, over the last few days FIDE has been perceived as both a peacemaker a war-monger.

It's fair to FIDE has had an eventful, and very mixed, week.