2026 chess season tracker

[Gollum]

Btw you are lucky @vvvslaxman. If i were in your place, I would spend 20 days per year in SLCC. 

 

This is the news I was talking about

Saint Louis Chess Club to unveil new world-class facility: Anand v. Kasparov match among historic events

 

Quote

 The Saint Louis Chess Club is set to reopen this October with a newly expanded 30,000-square-foot campus, reinforcing its position as a global hub for chess. The month-long celebration will feature "Clutch Chess: The Legends", with Garry Kasparov facing Viswanathan Anand, the U.S. and U.S. Women's Championships, Hall of Fame inductions, and the Champions Showdown with Carlsen, Nakamura, Caruana and Gukesh. The transformed venue combines elite competition with education, community engagement and cutting-edge technology.

 

[vvvslaxman]

35 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Btw you are lucky @vvvslaxman. If i were in your place, I would spend 20 days per year in SLCC. 

 

This is the news I was talking about

Saint Louis Chess Club to unveil new world-class facility: Anand v. Kasparov match among historic events

 

 

 

Cool. Curious to visit the new facility.  One good thing about these events is you hardly see any crowd. Max 30 to 40 people at a time. Almost all the players are very easily accessible. Carlsen was the one who was walking like  a hot tin on a roof. Couldn't get hold of him. Anand was uber laidback and very down to earth.  Anish Giri was nice enough to share his pic with me. Although these competitions are nice to attend i love the exhibition matches where you see more celebrities. The article has the image of the event i went to. I don't thiink they can come up with an event like that. In that event 9 of the top 10 ranked players were in that room.  

 

[vvvslaxman]

@Gollum  i uploaded these videos of 2019 event. This playlist has 16 videos

 

 

[Gollum]

 

Svidler (best 960 player of the 2000s, a pioneer) will be training Kasparov for the October match, some weird rules like day 3 points will count as double, why can't they have a normal match?

 

And these guys are so insecure of a 19 year old 

[Gollum]

Gukesh is unlucky in the sense that his rise as WC is coinciding with the prime (not peak !!!) of Carlsen, Caruana, Nakamura, MVL, Nepo, So and another very strong generation of Firouzja, Pragg, Arjun, Vincent, Nodirbek etc. 

 

When Kasparov became WC, he only had Karpov as his rival for his first 10-15 years. Korchnoi was already 50+ by then and a distant 3rd........likes of Yusupov, Beliavsky, Short, Timman, Hort were not in the elite league. Smyslov was 60+, Spassky retired, Fischer was in a cult in Pasadena far removed from the chess world. It was just Kasparov and Karpov until the emergence of Anand, Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Kamsky, Kramnik, Topalov in late 80s, early 90s. By then Karpov had faded but Kasparov had time to settle down, and be a dominant force. 

 

For Carlsen, he beat a guy old enough to be his dad, way past his prime. Even Kramnik, Topalov were close to 15 years elder to him and on their last legs. The generation of Aronian had only him, Naka and Grischuk, 80s born chess players too few and quality was also not there....Aronian was a choker, Naka unserious about classical till much later, Grischuk also not a legit threat. Carlsen too had a free reign in early 2010s till Caruana (4 years younger to him) emerged in mid 2010s.

 

Gukesh has to navigate through much tougher competition now, if he were a normal kid, he would have just finished his 12th board exams this year. Scrutiny and criticism of him is very cruel and in bad taste...no doubt fuelled by Wignats unleashed by Trump, Musk. 

[Gollum]

 

[Gollum]

Goa to host 2025 Chess World Cup

 

 

 

[Gollum]

Last time India hosted the WC was in 2002, Hyderabad. 

 

Anand won that beating Uzbekistan's Rustam Kasimdhzanov (who btw was Anand's second in multiple WCC matches, later Caruana's second, and now handling Uzbek talent like Nodirbek/Sindarov) in the final. In 2000 event in China, he beat Bareev in the final.

 

Aronian is another 2 time champ, 2005 and 2017.

 

Last WC in Baku (Azerbaijan), Carlsen won beating Pragg in the final.  

 

WC winner, runner up and third place finisher get direct qualification to 2026 Candidates. 

 

 

Edited August 27, 2025 by Gollum

[Gollum]

@Lone Wolf @New guy @Lord New Delhi was supposed to host this WC. But because of pollution concerns, they shifted it to Goa. Correct decision , well done AICF , national capital can host some other event in Feb-Aug. 

 

Contrast this with BCCI's attitude who are hell bent upon hosting in Delhi every year in Oct-Jan period. This year, Ind-WI test in Delhi in October. Are they doing it deliberately because they hate the players/fans, want people to get sick (remember Shami throwing up in his run up in the 2017 test vs SL)? Or just to tarnish India's image? 

Edited August 27, 2025 by Gollum

[Gollum]

Tonight is final round of Sinquefield Cup. Caruana and Pragg in joint lead. 

 

Caruana has white vs Gukesh in his final round.

 

Pragg with black against Aronian.

[vvvslaxman]

Today i am going there. I may not watch it. Drop my wife off and go to office as i have several meetings.

[vvvslaxman]

Chahal makes 8 crores for his 'services" in IPL lol Pragg will win 85000 USD if he wins this one lol

[Gollum]

1 hour ago, vvvslaxman said:

Chahal makes 8 crores for his 'services" in IPL lol Pragg will win 85000 USD if he wins this one lol

85k USD is very good for one event. Most of these top players will easily earn upwards of 300-400k per year, double the amount of an MIT prof. Guys like Gukesh, Carlsen in millions.....Nakamura earns millions just from his streaming career. For Indian players, even better because sometimes their prizemoney isn't taxed (₹4.67 Crore Tax Relief to Chess Star Gukesh: A Game-Changing Win)

 

Of course can't compare chess money with that of cricket, football, tennis, NBA. But still how much do you think wrestlers, swimmers, gymnasts, archers, shooters, sprinters, volleyball or field hockey players make? Chess players don't have to worry about long term physical injuries. For an Olympic gold medalist wrestler to make millions he will have to get into MMA and put his body on the line. 

 

Anyway money is secondary, do you think 20 years from now Pragg will be remembered or some non-superstar cricketer? Global fame also matters, chess players have a wider net. And government awards bhi milega.  

Edited August 27, 2025 by Gollum

[rangeelaraja]

44 minutes ago, Gollum said:

85k USD is very good for one event. Most of these top players will easily earn upwards of 300-400k per year, double the amount of an MIT prof. Guys like Gukesh, Carlsen in millions.....Nakamura earns millions just from his streaming career. For Indian players, even better because sometimes their prizemoney isn't taxed (₹4.67 Crore Tax Relief to Chess Star Gukesh: A Game-Changing Win)

 

Of course can't compare chess money with that of cricket, football, tennis, NBA. But still how much do you think wrestlers, swimmers, gymnasts, archers, shooters, sprinters, volleyball or field hockey players make? Chess players don't have to worry about long term physical injuries. For an Olympic gold medalist wrestler to make millions he will have to get into MMA and put his body on the line. 

 

Anyway money is secondary, do you think 20 years from now Pragg will be remembered or some non-superstar cricketer? Global fame also matters, chess players have a wider net. And government awards bhi milega.  

I guess the point is unless you are a super elite in Chess - ( top 20 ), only then you can make a living out of Chess. This is super tough to achieve when there are  10s of 1000s of professional players and the competition is far far more intense than cricket. 
 

For those who are not in top 20 ( they don’t even likely receive sponsorship ), they cannot make a living out of chess alone. 
 

This is unlike cricket where you may below mediocre like Chahal and Krunal Pandya ( not even in the top 100 ) and yet make several crores through league cricket. 

Edited August 27, 2025 by rangeelaraja

[randomGuy]

3 hours ago, Gollum said:

@Lone Wolf @New guy @Lord New Delhi was supposed to host this WC. But because of pollution concerns, they shifted it to Goa. Correct decision , well done AICF , national capital can host some other event in Feb-Aug. 

 

Contrast this with BCCI's attitude who are hell bent upon hosting in Delhi every year in Oct-Jan period. This year, Ind-WI test in Delhi in October. Are they doing it deliberately because they hate the players/fans, want people to get sick (remember Shami throwing up in his run up in the 2017 test vs SL)? Or just to tarnish India's image? 

Should be fine as the test starts on 10th oct...the cutoff time for horrible pollution is arnd 15th to 20th oct. Btw This time for the first time, we will be having artificial rain in October to tackle pollution, let's see how it goes. China does it on millions of sq km every year.

[vvvslaxman]

1 hour ago, Gollum said:

85k USD is very good for one event. Most of these top players will easily earn upwards of 300-400k per year, double the amount of an MIT prof. Guys like Gukesh, Carlsen in millions.....Nakamura earns millions just from his streaming career. For Indian players, even better because sometimes their prizemoney isn't taxed (₹4.67 Crore Tax Relief to Chess Star Gukesh: A Game-Changing Win)

 

Of course can't compare chess money with that of cricket, football, tennis, NBA. But still how much do you think wrestlers, swimmers, gymnasts, archers, shooters, sprinters, volleyball or field hockey players make? Chess players don't have to worry about long term physical injuries. For an Olympic gold medalist wrestler to make millions he will have to get into MMA and put his body on the line. 

 

Anyway money is secondary, do you think 20 years from now Pragg will be remembered or some non-superstar cricketer? Global fame also matters, chess players have a wider net. And government awards bhi milega.  

I am just saying. When my best friend tried to get his daughters into chess who are pretty good by the way, few trainers discouraged that they won't make much money. What these guys do is phenomenal. But since it is  niche sports commercilaistion opportunities is less. I talked to a few north Indian colleagues about it. They don't even know who Anand is let alone Gukesh.  

[Gollum]

1 hour ago, rangeelaraja said:

I guess the point is unless you are a super elite in Chess - ( top 20 ), only then you can make a living out of Chess. This is super tough to achieve when there are  10s of 1000s of professional players and the competition is far far more intense than cricket. 
 

For those who are not in top 20 ( they don’t even likely receive sponsorship ), they cannot make a living out of chess alone. 
 

This is unlike cricket where you may below mediocre like Chahal and Krunal Pandya ( not even in the top 100 ) and yet make several crores through league cricket. 

Different in team sports. In cricket/football every team will carry 20 members squad, so outside 100 is still fine. That too, these are professional sports (field hockey, volleyball are still mostly amateur) with leagues, domestic sides etc. Scale of cricket/football economy is something else. 

 

Think of an amateur sport like wrestling, if you don't make your national squad (for every weight category there may be 3 spots?) better look for a secondary job. Even in a professional individual sport like tennis (lots of money there), those outside top 50 have a tough life, Sumit Nagal who has been in main draws of majors and won a set against Federer in USO, went bankrupt 2 years back. Those outside top 100 usually live whole year in their cars and roadside motels.....watch the movie 'Challengers', it is almost day to day firefighting for such players. Similar in motorsports, because there are very few open spots in F1, NASCAR, IndyCar etc. 

 

Chess is better because your secondary job can often be an extension of your chess career....things like coaching, commentary, streaming, arbitership, journalism, freelance content creation.

 

And at least in a country like India, if you become a reasonably strong player (like top 50), you will get some government/PSU or even private corporate job, because we have department sports culture. When Vidit/Hari/Baskaran were low 2600s they were picked up by companies like ONGC, BPCL, IOCL even though they never had academic qualifications. Check this article https://www.chessbase.in/news/Inter-unit-PSPB-2019

 

Quote

A huge role has been played by the Petroleum companies of India to make chess into a financially viable sport. The Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) includes companies like Indian Oil (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), and others. Each of these companies have recruited grandmasters and International Masters and offered them good jobs with decent salaries (starting from Rs.50,000 per month) so that they can focus on their game. Once they are recruited in the sports quota, they do not have to go to work and the salary is credited at the end of the month in their account. This is how the PSPB supports chess in our country. For the players it is important that they maintain their rating and performances above a specific threshold to enjoy these benefits. Right from Harikrishna (BPCL), Vidit Gujrathi (ONGC), B.Adhiban (IOCL), Sasikiran (ONGC), Surya Ganguly (IOCL), Sethuraman (ONGC), Humpy (ONGC), (Harika (IOCL), and many more, each of these top players is employed with a Petroleum Company. 

 Even IMs like Tania, Mary Ann Gomes, Rout had jobs with Air India, India Post.

 

There was a player called Sandipan Chanda (seconded Anand against Kramnik IIRC) who had a job with SAIL, maybe still has, dunno. He was just a 2500 but had a stable job and had to show up to work only occasionally every month and do mundane paperwork. His main job was training the SAIL chess team, that too for couple of hours every evening, that's all. My dad worked in a SAIL steel plant and interacted with this guy many times, he used to tell so many stories about top level chess and especially Wijk aan Zee. Wijk aan Zee has a steel plant (earlier Corus, now Tata, sponsors of the chess tournament) and when some of the SAIL engineers went there for training, he gave them his contacts and tips because he knew that place (a small village which non-chess fans would never have heard of) damn well. Some of the luckier guys who were there in January got pictures with Anand, Kramnik, young Carlsen, Aronian etc. It was fascinating back then when SM was in initial years, and top chess players weren't easily accessible. 

 

Anyway that aside, what I want to say is that Indian chess players are well looked after, and heard it is similar in Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan (autocracies which put lots of value in image building, so chess players are taken good care of there). As for what happens in the West, I don't care. As long as Indian chess players are taken good care of, I am happy. 

Edited August 27, 2025 by Gollum

[vvvslaxman]

Seems like they changed the location for this season as they are doing renovations at old building. My wife told they are not allowed inside during event. You jlcan just meet them outside. She ran into Gukesh in the elevator.

Edited August 27, 2025 by vvvslaxman

[Gollum]

16 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

I am just saying. When my best friend tried to get his daughters into chess who are pretty good by the way, few trainers discouraged that they won't make much money. What these guys do is phenomenal. But since it is  niche sports commercilaistion opportunities is less. I talked to a few north Indian colleagues about it. They don't even know who Anand is let alone Gukesh.  

Every Indian must have at least heard the name Anand. I am yet to meet a person in my uni/job who hasn't. He may not be celebrated like a cricket superstar but his name is associated with chess for our people. Also, every single person in my lab is or has been active on chess.com or lichess recently, so they are more in touch with chess than cricket which they never play. 

 

Your friend's daughters should have tried their hands at chess. Can always list it in your CV. Many 2000+ ones get accepted in top schools and make their names in CS, maths, economics etc. Heard of Demis Hassabis, Kenneth Rogoff? Of course you still have to be good at academics, but with so much competition, extra skills/achievements always help, especially a cerebral activity like chess. Parimarjan Negi was India's youngest GM at one point, since his career couldn't go to next level, went and did his PhD in CS from MIT, and now has a startup in Boston....he said in an interview that his chess achievements played a part in getting selected. 

Edited August 27, 2025 by Gollum

[Gollum]

1 hour ago, randomGuy said:

Should be fine as the test starts on 10th oct...the cutoff time for horrible pollution is arnd 15th to 20th oct. Btw This time for the first time, we will be having artificial rain in October to tackle pollution, let's see how it goes. China does it on millions of sq km every year.

My point is, play according to your strengths or weaknesses.

 

Host cricket matches in Delhi in Feb-Mar like we did in 2023 BGT (picture quality was so much better which is unlike Kotla), why take chance with smog/AQI which only gives India negative PR besides torturing the players?

 

Host Guwahati/Kolkata tests in summer, not winter when sun sets early. It gets dark in our NE by 4 pm in winter, how can you host a test there and guarantee 90 overs per day?

 

Choose venues which aren't affected by monsoon, eg. Chennai is hit by NE monsoon (not by SW so much because of Western Ghats), Mumbai is hit by SW monsoon but no rain in Nov-Jan. So Chennai can host matches in Aug and Mumbai in Dec, not ulta. 

 

BCCI makes these blunders all the time. 

Edited August 27, 2025 by Gollum