Two Americans are bringing home first-place trophies from the 2024 World Cadet Rapid and Blitz Championships held April 25 through 29 in Durres, Albania.
Almost 1,600 students from grades kindergarten through sixth grade begun their chess-filled weekends on Friday, April 26 in Columbus for the 2024 National Elementary School (NES) Championship. Play continues today, with three rounds. Top boards can be followed on uschess.live all day.
For the better part of Sunday's last-round games in Toronto, at least one of the 2024 FIDE Candidates events appeared headed to a playoff match. Instead, both challengers were determined in regulation.
The penultimate round of the 2024 FIDE Candidates’ Tournament and Women’s Candidate Tournament took two divergent paths on Saturday in Toronto. In the Women’s event, five players entered with a mathematical chance (albeit a slim one for three of them), but now the situation is clear. GM Tan Zhongyi wins the tournament outright with at least a draw, whereas a loss and then a GM Lei Tingjie win forces a tiebreak. This scenario where the leaders have separated from the field by the 14th round of play is what we can call the “normal” outcome.
“Only” half of the eight games played during Thursday’s 12th round of the 2024 FIDE Candidates and Women’s Candidates tournaments ended in decisive games (down from six on Wednesday), serving to illustrate just how high the “baseline” for drama and suspense has risen over the course of the last few weeks in Toronto. Enjoy a number of annotations from WGM Gulrukhbegim "Begim" Tokhirjonova, including incredibly detailed and instructive analysis of Nakamura – Firouzja and Salimova – Tan!