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  World Chess Championship Finally Has a Venue At long last the international chess governing body, FIDE, has selected Geneva, Switzerland for the 14 game match between champion GM Gukesh D of India and GM Sindarov of Uzbekistan. The US and Cyprus are reported to have made bids to host the match.  I can find nothing about the purported US bid.  Stay tuned on that issue.  As the linked article in The Guardian notes, Gukesh has been having a terrible year in tournament competition.  Additionally, the Chinese GM Ding Laren whom he defeated to take the WC title, had been suffering from serious depression after winning the WC title as was not at his career best level of play. Sindarov is the favorite, but in matches as opposed to tournaments, one never knows what could happen. Much will depend on how the early games go.  https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jul/28/geneva-world-chess-championship-gukesh-sindarov 
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Akiba Rubinstein For the Club Player:  So Many Openings. Only One Lifetime  The 15th Edition of Modern Chess Openings by GM Nick de Firmian is a mere 748 pages long. Last published in 2008, it is undoubtedly not totally up to date on openings and opening lines developed and played in top level matches since it was last published.  But…the basics are there for any chess player at any level. For club players not aiming to be chess professionals and those not yet retired with eons of free time on their hands, deciding on which openings and defenses to reasonably focus on to improve one’s enjoyment of our game becomes a very real and difficult nut to crack.  This is the first in a series of posts about basic chess openings and defenses that are sound for club players.  Here are my suggestions for dealing with an opponent’s 1. e4. It was the macabre NYC based comedian of the 60’s, Brother Theodore, who quipped, “I knew his first move would be 1.e4, but I was powerles...
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                       From North Star Monthly Here are the final standings:
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  LIX Capablanca International Memorial, Havana, Cuba If memory of Roman numerals serves me correctly, this is the 59th edition of this tournament begun in 1962 in remembrance of Jose Capablanca, the third World Chess Champion who was born in Havana in 1888.  The tournament has a storied history birthed in the midst of the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Due to the ongoing US trade embargo on Cuba begun in 1960, participation by US chess players has been severely limited, the exception being Bobby Fischer's now legendary participation in 1965 via telex from the Marshall Chess Club in New York City. Fischer shared second place with Borislav Ivkov (Yugoslavia), and Efim Geller (USSR). The winner was former World Champion Vasily Smyslov (USSR).  Other winners over the years have included Viktor Korchnoi (Soviet Union), Bent Larsen (Denmark), Ulf Andersson (Sweden) and Tony Miles (England).  Though present participation is limited for economic/political re...
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                                 Photo Chessbase Pragg Wins Norway 2026 Gukesh Last, Carlsen in the Middle It was Carlsen's worst result in Oslo since 2015. Is he slipping at longer games? He is reported to have had some difficulty with the time control used in Oslo.  A similar time control issue at Tata Steel this year was discussed with Loek van Wely in New In Chess podcast #86 this past January. If nothing else, his future "classical" games will be followed with increased interest. Given Hans Niemann's recent tie in his "grudge" match with Nepo in Serbia, it would be interesting to see a similar short match between Carlsen and Niemann. While I think Carsen would win, it might well be a close match with some good fighting chess. Perhaps classical timing with no bonus at all. A time-warp match...analogue clocks anyone? ️ Here are the final Norway 2026 standings:
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  Photo: Chessbase      World Senior Team Championships Underway in Albania At the halfway point in the Age 55+ section the US and Italian teams are tied for first place.  In the Age 65+ section France 1 and Iceland are tied for first place. Due to the small number of women's teams, all teams are playing in the same, age based sections.  The tournament is taking place in Durrës, Albania.  Back in the early 1960's I was an avid listener to shortwave radio broadcasts from nations around the world.  Albania was then a communist nation with its capital in Tirana. I listened in on Radio Tirana broadcasts regularly. At that time, around 1965, Albania had broken with Moscow and aligned itself with China.  As such, Albania was the only overtly Maoist communist nation in Eastern Europe with Radio Tirana regularly parroting the Radio Beijing position on world affairs.   Midpoint Tournament Standings 50+ (top 20) after completing five rou...
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  Cobleigh Slow Final Round Battle Expected Round five, the final round, of the Spring 2026 Cobleigh Slow, one game per month tournament is scheduled for Thursday evening, May 21st. Mike Chadburn of Lyndonville is leading with four victories in four rounds. Two others, Russell DesJardins and Joe Wray, are tied one point behind him with one round to go. Chadburn can be caught and tied should he falter in the final round.  Here are the pairings for the fifth and final round scheduled for May 21st:
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