Luke McShane

There is a persistent contrarian view that the world’s top players maintain their high ratings by being part of a closed shop. According to that theory, the same players get invited to all the same tournaments, where they face each other repeatedly, and the prevalence of draws between closely matched players means that nobody’s rating

Jan Timman, the Dutch grandmaster who at his peak reached second place in the world rankings, died in February at the age of 74. For much of the 1980s, when Soviet players (especially Karpov and Kasparov) dominated the game, Timman was regarded as the ‘Best of the West’. As a young man, Timman was drawn to the bohemian

Since Magnus Carlsen abdicated his classical world championship crown in 2022, the international chess federation (Fide) has faced a persistent headache: the world’s strongest player has no interest in their flagship event. Fide has responded by adding new formats in which world titles are contested, to encourage Carlsen’s participation. Early in 2026, they sanctioned the

‘This is why you don’t do puzzles, kids,’ drawled Magnus Carlsen, after a lucky escape in a recent blitz game played on Chess.com. ‘Because if this is a puzzle you see it immediately. But in puzzles, you’re trained to see puzzles, while in games, you’re not.’ No doubt Carlsen has done his fair share of

The 2026 Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee saw a commanding performance from Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who claimed outright victory with nine points from 13 games. It’s a pity, then, that the young Uzbek won’t be competing in the upcoming Candidates Tournament – the event that will determine Gukesh’s next world championship challenger. Abdusattorov’s recent

The ‘Wimbledon of Chess’ is underway in the Netherlands. Meanwhile in Spain, there’s a gaming industry expo. Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, the world’s no. 1 and no. 2, are at the trade show, where they had a fireside chat with YouTuber Levy Rozman – better known as GothamChess. One theme was how much chess has changed

The January 2026 Fide junior rankings tell a remarkable story: at the top sits Gukesh Dommaraju from India, who in 2024 became the youngest world champion in history. Still just 19 years old, he will defend the title later this year. The real shock is that the second-place spot now belongs to a 14-year-old: Yagiz

British chess has lost an inspiring figure. Grandmaster Jonathan Hawkins, two-time British champion, author and coach, died on 22 December at just 42 years old after battling a neuroendocrine carcinoma, an aggressive form of cancer.    Hawkins’s achievements in chess are remarkable for answering a perennial question: can adult improvers really aspire to significant progress?

Magnus Carlsen’s relationship with Fide is frayed, all the more following the spat at the 2024 World Rapid and Blitz Championships in New York, when the world no. 1 was penalised for wearing jeans. The Norwegian said it was his good relations with the Qatari organisers, and his domestic fans, for whom following the event has

When I lose a game of chess, I tend to know exactly where it went awry. Take the following position, where I faced Alireza Firouzja at the XTX Markets London Chess Classic, held at the Emirates Stadium in December. Firouzja, rated in the world top ten, was the top seed at the Elite section, and