American chess grandmaster Hans Niemann, the 19-year old phenom accused of cheating, was to play his first-round match at the 2022 US Chess Championships on Wednesday. The scandal is the talk of the board.
World champion Magnus Carlsen has called cheating "an existential threat to the game," in comments following his withdrawal from one competition and sudden resignation in another when playing an American teenager.
The 1972 World Chess Championship saw Bobby Fischer of the US challenge the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky. Fifty years later, the "Match of the Century" lives on.
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) ruled that Sergey Karjakin will not be allowed to play for six months. One of the world's top chess players, he has been banned for his support of Russia's Ukraine invasion.
Ties between Russia and Ukraine have traditionally been strong in chess. But the war threatens to destroy that relationship. The world federation has sanctioned Russia and Belarus but is itself in the spotlight.