Every story in this episode is in the First Look Chess newsletter, with the links, the games, and the PGNs to download: firstlookchess.com

In this episode:

• The November FIDE rating list makes IM Alice Lee the US women's No. 1 at 2474, world No. 14, after her second place in the U.S. Women's Championship, while champion WIM Rachael Li gained 50 points to 2430 and world No. 31, Carissa Yip lost 31 points, and Hans Niemann fell 20 points and ten places to 2697, out of the 2700 group.
• Alireza Firouzja ended Hikaru Nakamura's run of Bullet Brawl titles on Saturday, scoring 55/73 for 170 points in the 232-player arena, four ahead of Nakamura, with Ediz Gurel third, Matthias Bluebaum fourth and WIM Melika Mohammadi taking the $100 women's prize, chess.com reports.
• FM Peter Giannatos's Charlotte Chess Center teaches about 500 students a week across its two sites and reaches roughly 2,000 children a week through some 60 school programs, he tells ChessBase's Sagar Shah in an interview conducted during the Naroditsky Memorial.
• US Chess newly rated 62 events across 22 states, median size 20, led by a 343-player scholastic at Hendricks Elementary in McAllen, Texas, and three ICN team tournaments in New York of 147, 143 and 140 players, while at the Chicago Fall Open FM Artemii Khanbutaev, No. 12 on the US Chess Under 16 list, won his second and third games and Hardy Gu, No. 54 on that list, beat Cuban IM Liordis Quesada Vera (FIDE 2290).
• Daniil Dubov leads the KazChess Masters in Almaty alone on 4½/6 after wins in rounds five and six, the latter over IM Alua Nurman, half a point ahead of Shamsiddin Vokhidov and Denis Lazavik; in Chennai 10-year-old FM Sarbartho Mani beat GM Dimitris Alexakis in round two of the Chola Chess Open as top seed Aravindh Chithambaram beat Sandipan Chanda; and the Open Bavarian Championship opened at Tegernsee with 551 players and 16 grandmasters.

The Opening is written from the day's evidence and checked by the same fact rules as the newsletter; the voice is synthetic. Powered by AI, guided by human expertise.

Every story in this episode is in the First Look Chess newsletter, with the links, the games, and the PGNs to download: firstlookchess.com

In this episode:

• Rooks and Roots, the girls' math-and-chess nonprofit co-founded by WGM Iris Mou and Lisa Sun, used a US Chess Women's Grant this year to stage a free festival for 60 girls in New York City and has since added chapters in Texas and online, US Chess reports.
• Wadim Rosenstein, who lost September's FIDE presidential runoff to Timur Turlov 110-85, told RBC-Ukraine he does not recognize the result and has filed complaints with the federation's Ethics Commission, alleging a side agreement between Turlov and Malcolm Pein, the deputy-president candidate on Jan Henric Buettner's ticket, and saying he was "blackmailed and threatened with the imposition of Ukrainian sanctions" to make him withdraw.
• US Chess newly rated 48 events across 21 states, median size 14, led by the 286-player 2026 CPS All-Stars in Chicago, and Brewington Hardaway and Maxim Dlugy, No. 4 on the US Chess Age 50+ list, shared first in the 51-player Marshall FIDE Blitz in New York on 8 points.
• GM Alexey Sarana won the first of Thursday's three 3 0 Thursday events on 10/11 and GM Arjun Erigaisi the other two, while IM Rose Atwell took the top women's prize in the third on 7 points — and GM Sina Movahed won Friday's Freestyle Friday for the second time in three weeks, chess.com reports.
• Volodar Murzin (2656) beat Wang Yue (2619) and Yu Yangyi (2704) held Wei Yi (2758) in round 10 of the Chinese Chess League's Division A round robin, and at the KazChess Masters in Almaty Daniil Dubov (2654) beat Denis Makhnev (2581), who had shared the lead after four rounds, while Shamsiddin Vokhidov (2649) beat 14-year-old IM Mark Smirnov (2451) and Mahammad Muradli (2662) beat IM Alua Nurman (2460).

The Opening is written from the day's evidence and checked by the same fact rules as the newsletter; the voice is synthetic. Powered by AI, guided by human expertise.

Every story in this episode is in the First Look Chess newsletter, with the links, the games, and the PGNs to download: firstlookchess.com

In this episode:

• Javokhir Sindarov won Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown in St. Louis on 20.5 points, overturning a 2½-point deficit on the final day with three wins and three draws — among them a King's Indian against Hikaru Nakamura that chess.com calls the game of the tournament — while Fabiano Caruana finished third on 16.5 after trapping Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu's queen in the last game and Nakamura, Tuesday's leader, was last on 12.
• US Chess staged a chess exhibition at a National Squash League match in Atlanta on October 24 — blitz, bughouse and a three-board blindfold simul before the Carolina Pirates met the Atlanta Tornados — as a one-match trial after NSL co-founder Timmy Brownell proposed chess at all 16 league matches this season.
• FIDE named Istanbul the host of the 2026 World Rapid and Blitz Championships on Thursday, with play December 26-30 and Freedom Holding Corp. as title sponsor, and the same day filled out Timur Turlov's new President's Office — Emil Sutovsky as Chief Executive Adviser, Victor Bologan and Dana Reizniece as Special Representatives, and four Representatives including Zhu Chen, who will head a FIDE Shenzhen Office.
• The XTX Markets London Chess Classic has its ten Masters: last year's winner Nodirbek Abdusattorov heads a field with Levon Aronian and 16-year-old Andy Woodward of the United States, Vasyl Ivanchuk in what the organizers call his Classic debut at 57, Nihal Sarin, Ihor Samunenkov and England's Michael Adams, Gawain Maroroa Jones, Luke McShane and Shreyas Royal, from November 24 at Hammersmith.
• US Chess newly rated 37 events across 24 states, median size 16, led by a 103-player K-6 scholastic in Chico, California, and Karl Dehmelt, No. 94 on the US Chess Age 50+ list, won the Open section of the 43-player Chaturanga Championship in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, on 6 points.

The Opening is written from the day's evidence and checked by the same fact rules as the newsletter; the voice is synthetic. Powered by AI, guided by human expertise.