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.