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A major new international chess event is coming to Spain next month featuring some of the most popular content creators in the game competing for title norms.

The first Madrid Chess Festival will play host to three classical tournaments and a blitz event running between June 10 and 15. According to the organizers, it is part of a new drive to bring big tournaments back to the Spanish capital.

On the bill are IM Levy Rozman, aka GothamChess, and GM Pepe Cuenca, co-organizers of the festival with El Divis IM David Martinez, plus the popular streamers IM Eric Rosen, and WFM Anna Cramling. Together, the line-up has more than 10 million followers on YouTube.

Fans will also be treated to a glimpse of the Argentine wonderkid FM Faustino Oro, the fast-rising 10-year-old who beat world number-one GM Magnus Carlsen in Chess.com's Bullet Brawl in March.

Fausti, as he is known, will be going for a grandmaster norm in one of two ten-player closed events along with Rosen. Cuenca and Rozman will compete in the other.

The closed groups are packed with players from Spanish-speaking countries, with 10 Spanish players, two Cubans, two Argentinians, and two Venezuelans. Four American players, including Rozman and Rosen, complete the line-up.

The open tournament will feature 50 players including another well-known content creator, Swedish WFM Anna Cramling. The 22-year-old is one of the most popular chess influencers and recently joined YouTube's exclusive One Million Subscribers' Club.

The festival will finish with a blitz tournament featuring the mysterious man-in-the-mask Rey Enigma, who has more than five million followers.

IM Martinez said: Despite hosting the FIDE Candidates in 2022, Madrid has been slowly losing its prominence in the world of chess, with the disappearance of the major open tournaments that used to be regularly held.

We hope that this first edition of the Madrid Chess Festival will mark a turning point, bringing Madrid back to the forefront of Spanish and international chess.

The Madrid Chess Festival will take place at the citys Ajedrez con Cabeza and Canal Isabel II starting on June 10 at 11:00 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8.30 p.m. IST.

You can catch all the action of the 2024 Madrid Chess Festival on Chess.com/TV or on Chess24's Twitch and YouTube channels.

Read more:
GothamChess, Oro, Cramling And Rosen In Madrid Chess Festival - Chess.com

Chess.com is back at TwitchCon this year, with 2024's European TwitchCon event kicking off in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on June 29.

There are plenty of amazing activities planned for chess fans, and we look forward to meeting many of you there, whether you're a seasoned TwitchCon veteran or a first-time visitor!

TwitchCon tickets are still on sale! One-day tickets are priced at 75, while two-day tickets cost 125. These tickets give you access to the full convention, including many other booths (though clearly none are as cool as the Chess.com one).

TwitchCon is always a wonderful time for the chess community to meet and bond over our shared love of the game and introduce others to the magic of chess for the first time. Whether you're there to set new records in our puzzle challenges or show your friends how the pieces move, we'd love to see you there.

Originally posted here:
Chess.com Returns To TwitchCon In Rotterdam - Chess.com

Bullet Brawl is Chess.com's two-hour arena with a 1+0 time control where titled players compete for a piece of the $1,000 prize fund. Events take place every Saturday at 12 p.m. ET/18:00 CEST.

The Bullet Brawl consists of a two-hour bullet arena with a 1+0 time control for titled players. This event is a score-based arena where players get paired based on their scores instead of their rating. The player who stacks up the most points by the end of the arena wins.

The event takes place every Saturday starting at 12 p.m. ET/18:00 CEST.

The event features a weekly $1,000 prize fund, distributed as follows:

Bullet Brawl is open to all titled players. To participate in the event, head over to our Tournaments page and join the tournament within an hour before it starts.

While only titled players can play in Bullet Brawl, untitled members of our community who are looking for high-speed competition can play in the Community Bullet Brawl! Join our official Community Club and play in the Community Bullet Brawl every Saturday starting at 1 p.m. ET/19:00 CEST.

Excerpt from:
Bullet Brawl - All The Information - Chess.com

May 29 is a landmark date for R Praggnanandhaa. Besides it being the birthday of his friend and fellow prodigy D Gukesh and, coincidentally, that of Tan Zhongyi it marks the date in which the youngster obtained his International Master title (2016) and the date in which he collected his first-ever classical win over Magnus Carlsen (2024).

Pragg defeated Carlsen with white in round 3 of the Norway Chess tournament to collect 3 points and grab the sole lead in the standings. The Indian GM saw his famed opponent playing a risky Sicilian and losing the thread in the early middlegame. Precise play by the youngster in the ensuing struggle allowed him to emerge victorious in the 37-move encounter.

Hikaru Nakamura, who grabbed 1 points on Wednesday after beating Alireza Firouzja in Armageddon, reflected on the fact that Carlsen apparently plays more riskily when facing younger opponents. The 5-time US champion had this to say in the confessional booth:

When Magnus is playing the younger kids specifically, he wants to sort of prove a point he wants to go after them and try to beat them, and he takes far more risks than he does against us old folks.

Carlsen, who came from winning two Armageddon tiebreakers in the first two rounds, fell from the sole lead to fifth place. On the other hand, Fabiano Caruana, who suffered a painful loss on Tuesday, bounced back with a classical win over Ding Liren, which allowed him to climb to sole second place in the standings. Caruana surprised the world champion in the opening, got a major time advantage and swiftly converted his edge into a 31-move victory.

Thursdays fourth round, the last one before the first rest day, will see the following clashes: Caruana v. Carlsen, Nakamura v. Pragg and Firouzja v. Ding.

Fabiano Caruana climbed to second place after beating Ding Liren in their classical encounter | Photo: Stev Bonhage

It was a tough day at the office for Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Stev Bonhage

Calculation Training - Sharpen Your Game!

In Calculation Training Sharpen Your Game! a total of 73 examples have been selected, the vast majority containing multiple questions, and more than 160 questions of varying difficulty.

Navigating the Ruy Lopez Vol.1-3

The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings which continues to enjoy high popularity from club level to the absolute world top. In this video series, American super GM Fabiano Caruana, talking to IM Oliver Reeh, presents a complete repertoire for White.

Read this article:
Norway Chess: Pragg obtains first-ever classical win over Carlsen - Chess News | ChessBase

GM Alexander Grischuk, two weeks removed from the best second-place finish in Titled Tuesday history (or most painful, depending how you look at it), won the early edition of the tournament on May 28. That was followed by a win for GM Minh Le in the late tournament. Grischuk scored 9.5 points and won on tiebreaks ahead of GMs Vasif Durarbayli and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, while Le won outright with 10 points after receiving some help from his top-seeded final-round opponent.

Norway Chess was also ongoing during the early tournament, resulting in slightly lower turnout than past weeks, but there were still a robust 671 participants.

While Grischuk finished undefeated, he made three draws in rounds five through nine, after which he was in an 11-way tie for second place behind three leaders. One of those leaders, GM Sam Sevian, was Grischuk's opponent in the 10th round. Just 29 moves later, Grischuk had turned his half-point deficit into a share of first.

But Grischuk was hardly the only person to join the lead, and with one round to go, seven players were tied on 8.5 points. Three of them won their games: Grischuk, Durarbayli, and Duda. Durarbayli somehow turned a listless-looking endgame into a win against GM Denis Lazavik, who had led the tournament outright through eight rounds but now ended up outside the top five.

May 28 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

Grischuk claimed $1,000 for the victory while Durarbayli earned $750 and Duda $350. IM Renato Terry finished fourth for $200 while Sevian earned $100, and GM Bella Khotenashvili $100 as the top-scoring woman.

The late field saw 509 players join, including GMHikaru Nakamura following the completion of action in Norway. When Nakamura beat Le in a rook ending in round seven and stayed perfect, it seemed he would coast to another Titled Tuesday victory.

From that point on, however, Nakamura made three draws in the last four rounds while Le never lost again, despite facing only top-15 finishers in those games.

And neither of them led the field after nine rounds. Instead, Sevian did, but that did not last the encounter with Le in round 10.

Now Le and Nakamura were again tied atop the standings, but they could not play each other again. Le ended up with GM Nihal Sarin as his opponent while Nakamura took on IM Rudik Makarian. Despite the nearly 100-point rating difference between them, Makarian held the draw, while Nihal tried trading queens in the endgame and instead fell into a mate-in-one.

And with that, Le won the tournament, and Nihal's blunder was integral, too. With a draw, Nakamura's tiebreaks would have won out, as they did over Sevian, who recovered from the round 10 setback to join Nakamura on 9.5 points.

May 28 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

Le won $1,000 for his efforts, while Nakamura took home $750 and Sevian $350. GMs Daniel Naroditsky and Oleksandr Bortnyk rounded out the top five, winning $200 and $100, respectively. IM Karina Ambartsumova was the $100 women's prize winner.

With their performances, Le joined a tie for fifth place in the Titled Cup, while Ambartsumova is tied for third in the women's standings, as Nakamura and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk still lead. Lazavik continues to lead the juniors, GM Gata Kamsky the seniors, and WCM Veronika Shubenkova the girls.

Juniors: GM Denis Lazavik (174.5 points)

Seniors: GM Gata Kamsky (164.5 points)

Girls: WCM Veronika Shubenkova (108.5 points)

The Titled Cup fantasy game Chess Prophet continues as well. Current standings can be found here. (Login required.)

Titled Tuesday is Chess.com's weekly tournament for titled players, with two tournaments held each Tuesday. The first tournament begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time, and the second at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time/23:00 Central European/2:30 Indian Standard Time (next day).

Read the rest here:
Titled Tuesday - May 28, 2024 - Chess.com