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.