The Week in Chess

1. 6th Cairns Cup 2026 - Games and Results

   The 6th Cairns Cup 2026 took place Mon 10th to Fri 21st August 2026. Tan Zhongyi won with 6½/9 half a point clear of Alice Lee on 6. She earned her first GM norm in the 2026 Cairns Cup at the age of 16.

2. Grand Chess Tour Finals 2026 - Games and results

   The Grand Chess Tour Finals take place in Saint Louis 22nd to 27th August 2026. This is the final event of the tour and there is a total prize fund of $450,000, distributed as follows: $200,000 for first place, $125,000 for second, $75,000 for third, and $50,000 for fourth. The top four players with the best results during the tour are in finishing order: No. 1 Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Seed No. 2 Wesley So, Seed No. 3 Fabiano Caruana, and Seed No. 4 Vincent Keymer.

   The format is complex, two classical games (and a tie-break match for two points if tied), rapid and blitz with different weighting for the sections. I've got an experimental program to do the broadcasting trying to make sense of the format. Play 12pm local time, 6pm BST.

3. 13th Sinquefield Cup 2026 - Games and Results

   The 13th Sinquefield Cup took place 10th to 20th August 2026. Players: Fabiano Caruana, Javokhir Sindarov, Vincent Keymer, Wesley So, Anish Giri, Praggnanandhaa R, Jorden Van Foreest, Maxime Vachier-lagrave, Levon Aronian and Samuel Sevian.

   Wesley So took first place from Praggnanandhaa after winning a tie-break match. The players scored 5.5/9 to share first place and then drew two 10 minutes plus 5 seconds a move rapid game, a final Armageddon game was required, Wesley had the black pieces and draw odds, the game finished at King vs King and thus so had the draw he needed.

4. Carlsen wins the Chess event in the Esports World Cup - Final

   Magnus Carlsen convincingly won the lucrative chess final of the Esports World Cup which is being held in Paris, France. The event as a whole has 25 tournaments held over 24 different games and takes place July 6th to August 23rd, a period of 48 days. The claimed total prize fund for the entire event is US$75 million, the total for the chess was $1.5m with $250,000 for the winner, $190,000 for second, $145,000 for third place, and $115,000 fourth place. It might truly be said that the only really serious thing about the chess tournament in the Esports World Cup is the prize money.

   The players also sign up to be part of teams such as Team Liquid, Team Vitality, Karmine Corp, Ninjas in Pyjamas, who are legends in their own right. Games played alongside the chess include Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Counter-Strike 2, EA Sports FC 26, PUBG and Fortnite.

5. Esports World Cup 2026 - Games and Results

   The Esports World Cup chess section took place in Paris Tue 11th Aug to Sat 15th Aug 2026. This Double Elimination KO event featured Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakmura, Alireza Firouzja and Denis Lazavik among many famous names and faces. I have a new table format to show the results (although the introduction of sets in the final I couldn't handle) and all the games are also available. Carlsen was an easy winner of the final winning both sets comfortably and he didn't lose a game. Hikaru Nakamura finished in 3rd place winning his match against Firouzja which was plagued by technical issues and a loss in game 4 led to Firouzja just quitting.

6. 112th British Chess Championships 2026 - Games and Results

   The 112th British Chess Championships took place at the University of Warwick 1st to 9th August 2026. Luke McShane, Michael Adams, Shreyas Royal, Harry Grieve etc. Most interesting is the number of young players with Bodhana Sivanandan being one of those. The event delivered on its promise with 17-year-old Shreyas Royal earning his first title and Bodhana Sivanandan winning a tie-break match against Trisha Kanyamarala to win her first title at a record breaking 11-years-old, the women competed in the main championship and Bodhana's only loss was to the winner. It was only a few years ago that the British was a depressing run down affair making me wonder where all the juniors were, well they were just getting started at that point apparently.

7. WR Chess Rapid & Blitz Miami 2026 - Games and Results

   The WR Chess Rapid & Blitz Miami was a two day rapid and then blitz match between the USA and Uzbekistan ahead of the Olympiad. Team: Ukbekistan: Javokhir Sindarov, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Nodirbek Yakubboev, Shamsiddin Vokhidov, Mukhiddin Madaminov, USA: Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, Leinier Dominguez Perez. Each round was a team match with 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw. The USA narrowly won both days.

8. Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters 2026 - Games and Results

   The Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters took place Thu 16th Jul to Wed 22nd Jul 2026. Alireza Firouzja took clear first place with 4½/7 half a point clear of Dmitry Andreikin and Arjun Erigaisi, The poor form of World Champion Gukesh continues as he finished dead last on 2/7 and is in danger of falling below 2700. Gukesh continues to play wildly ambitious chess, it's still possible to believe he'll turn this around.