2026 chess season tracker

[Gollum]

Because of all the upsets, one quarter of the draw has become extremely stacked, while others offer easier pathways

 

Pragg, Dubov, Rapport, MVL, Vincent, Esipenko in same quarter. Out of these guys, 1 will reach SF.

 

Arjun, Aronian, Wei Yi also in same quarter, a bit tough since all these 3 are potential winners. In fact Arjun and Aronian are projected to meet in R16 (unless some big upset happens in tomorrow's round), which will be the biggest clash of this WC, unless Pragg and Vincent meet in QF.  

 

Funny thing is that both these tough quarters are on the same side of the draw, so SF encounter inhi ke beech hoga. 

 

Other side is halwa, I expect winner of Sinadrov/Yangyi to make the final. But Harikrishna, Pranav Venkatesh have some chance, Hari especially is playing lights out chess atm. 

 

Edited November 10, 2025 by Gollum

[Gollum]

Last edition (2023) was better for India. We had 4 Indians in QF: Pragg, Gukesh, Arjun, Vidit. Pragg made the final (after eliminating Arjun, Caruana in QF/SF) where he lost to Magnus. 

 

This time we have already lost Gukesh, Vidit, Aravindh, Nihal, Narayanan, Raunak, Luke in early rounds. And path ahead for Pragg, Arjun is damn tough. In WC format, TBs are more common which are rapid/blitz. And in such formats, Dubov, Aronian, MVL, Rapport, Esipenko become extra dangerous. 

Edited November 10, 2025 by Gollum

[Gollum]

Ivanchuk, Felix, Giri have rubbished Nepo's claims about poor conditions, they have all been knocked out but no salty/racist comments. On the contrary they say the playing conditions, hotel rooms, food, help by volunteers, fan engagement are excellent. Felix (Austrian GM) was saying you don't see such selfless work by volunteers in tournaments in Europe....and his audience is mostly German/Austrian chess fans. 

 

Nepo is a vile human being, Kramnik 2.0

 

 

Edited November 10, 2025 by Gollum

[Mariyam]

5 hours ago, Gollum said:

Because of all the upsets, one quarter of the draw has become extremely stacked, while others offer easier pathways

 

Pragg, Dubov, Rapport, MVL, Vincent, Esipenko in same quarter. Out of these guys, 1 will reach SF.

 

Arjun, Aronian, Wei Yi also in same quarter, a bit tough since all these 3 are potential winners. In fact Arjun and Aronian are projected to meet in R16 (unless some big upset happens in tomorrow's round), which will be the biggest clash of this WC, unless Pragg and Vincent meet in QF.  

 

Funny thing is that both these tough quarters are on the same side of the draw, so SF encounter inhi ke beech hoga. 

 

Other side is halwa, I expect winner of Sinadrov/Yangyi to make the final. But Harikrishna, Pranav Venkatesh have some chance, Hari especially is playing lights out chess atm. 

 

The winner of Pragg vs Dubov to win it all.

 

That's my guess.

[Gollum]

 

[Gollum]

4 hours ago, Mariyam said:

The winner of Pragg vs Dubov to win it all.

 

That's my guess.

I think the winner will come from the Arjun, Aronian, Wei Yi bracket. 

[Gollum]

Pragg, Vincent, MVL out. This is a bloodbath. Arjun is the only top 10 player standing, and he takes on 2 time WC winner, Aronian. 

[Gollum]

Yu Yangyi, Awonder Liang, Rapport all knocked out. Bad day for 2700s.

 

This format is too much a lottery. Being good in speed chess (Dubov) helps, but still not enough in many cases. 

[Gollum]

Edited November 13, 2025 by Gollum

[Gollum]

Arjun has knocked out Aronian, with black. Feeling conflicted, because this may have been Aronian's last shot at a candidates spot, always wanted him to dethrone Anand, instead of MC. 

 

The game ended abruptly, with a blunder.

[Gollum]

How can one not admire Aronian, all the grace in the world even during what must be a painful moment for him @randomGuy @rangeelaraja @Mariyam @New guy @MechEng !!!

 

One of the greatest players to not become world champion, and such a nice guy. Even during those random cheating allegations/witch hunts, he always openly backed the youngsters. During the Hans saga he was brave enough to go against the popular guy.

 

Sadly this may be end of the road for him in his world championship dreams, he is 43 now.  

 

 

Edited November 15, 2025 by Gollum

[Gollum]

Arjun vs Wei Yi in QF, tough draw continues.

 

Hari has his TBs tomorrow, if he wins he will meet Uzbekistan's Sindarov in QF. 

[Gollum]

Another great chess channel which I discovered earlier this year. For chess history aficionados. You may not agree with many of their rankings/opinions but will always enjoy their anecdotes, slice of history, tips and recommendations. They are nostalgiatards like English cricket connoiseurs (ones who keep talking about WG Grace and Jack Hobbs @MechEng), so they can piss off fans of modern players. 

 

GM Jessie Kraai

IMs David Pruess and Kosta Kavutskiy

 

 

Edited November 15, 2025 by Gollum

[Gollum]

Best case scenario for India is Harikrishna and Arjun finishing in top 3 here (there is a bronze medal match at the end). And Pragg winning the FIDE circuit which he leads comfortably atm, just shouldn't collapse in world rapid/blitz. 

 

3 Indians in candidates '26 (just like last time, only that Hari replaces Vidit) to challenge another Indian. Fingers crossed. 

[rangeelaraja]

4 hours ago, Gollum said:

How can one not admire Aronian, all the grace in the world even during what must be a painful moment for him @randomGuy @rangeelaraja @Mariyam @New guy @MechEng !!!

 

One of the greatest players to not become world champion, and such a nice guy. Even during those random cheating allegations/witch hunts, he always openly backed the youngsters. During the Hans saga he was brave enough to go against the popular guy.

 

Sadly this may be end of the road for him in his world championship dreams, he is 43 now.  

 

 

 

 

 

Quite frankly have lost much interest in chess. 

 

MC is playing much much below his peak in all formats - yet none of our young players ( or anyone for that matter ) is able to beat him when it counts and for the top prize.

 

He comes, wins casually. Rinse and repeat. Much disappointed in both Pragg and Gukesh. 

 

On top of that the whole Kramnik **** show.

 

I am also absolutely appalled that there is no honest chess journalism from India that does investigative factual journalism.

 

Sagar Shah and Chessbase India are shameless  utterly cringy ass lickers - they will suck up to Kramnik, Carlsen and even Nepo - without reporting true facts. 

 

Anything and everything to be on the right side of everyone in Chess - as opposed to having a narrative and calling a spade a spade.  Stopped watching that asshole a long while back and blocked his youtube channel.  

 

I will gain back some interest only when I see our boys truely dominate Magnus consistently and give him hell ( as opposed to the occasional wins )

 

 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2025 by rangeelaraja

[Gollum]

14 minutes ago, rangeelaraja said:

Quite frankly have lost much interest in chess. 

 

MC is playing much much below his peak in all formats - yet none of our young players ( or anyone for that matter ) is able to beat him when it counts and for the top prize.

 

He comes, wins casually. Rinse and repeat. Much disappointed in both Pragg and Gukesh. 

 

On top of that the whole Kramnik **** show.

 

I am also absolutely appalled that there is no honest chess journalism from India that does investigative factual journalism.

 

Sagar Shah and Chessbase India are shameless  utterly cringy ass lickers - they will suck up to Kramnik, Carlsen and even Nepo - without reporting true facts. 

 

Anything and everything to be on the right side of everyone in Chess - as opposed to having a narrative and calling a spade a spade.  Stopped watching that asshole a long while back and blocked his youtube channel.  

 

I will gain back some interest only when I see our boys truely dominate Magnus consistently and give him hell ( as opposed to the occasional wins )

 

Tough to see our boys beating Carlsen consistently in the near future. He is far better in rapid, blitz, 960, online etc. The only classical tournament he plays is Norway and even that is decided more based on the armageddon games, stopped being a pure classical tournament 10 years back. 

 

Our boys are still young, fluctuations are quite common at their age. Hope they recover soon. Arjun is playing great atm. 

 

But I get your point, losing interest is common and expected. Maybe the big tournaments next year (candidates, Olympiad, world championship) will reignite your interest. 

[Gollum]

[Gollum]

Indian campaign ends. Arjun narrowly misses candidates once again.

 

Uzbekistan 

Asian dominance !!!

 

[Gollum]

Jerusalem Masters (rapid) going on, final in one hour, Vishy vs Arjun in the final, former took down Nepo while latter took down Svidler in SF. There was round robin with 12 players (2 Indians, 6 Israelis, 3 Russians and Fedoseev who is ex-Russian) and these 4 made the playoffs. Event started on Nov 30. 

 

All-India final, teacher vs student, we win no matter what. Will be a miracle if Vishy wins though, he is turning 56 next week and Arjun has been on fire lately !!! 

 

 

@Mariyam, Samay is back, playing Pogchamps with a much stronger field this time. 

Edited December 3, 2025 by Gollum

[Gollum]

Arjun won 2.5-1.5, congrats. 

 

Rapid section ended 1-1, Anand had multiple winning chances with black. Then in blitz TBs, Arjun dominated.