The Opening: Daily Chess News from First Look Chess

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:
Hikaru Nakamura won his 73rd Bullet Brawl title on Saturday, scoring 165 points in a 225-player arena to finish 12 ahead of 17-year-old Turkish GM Ediz Gurel, who had led for most of the two hours, with Parham Maghsoodloo third on 141 and Faustino Oro a point behind him, chess.com reports.
Anuj Shrivatri, 22, became India's 100th grandmaster on Sunday by winning the 7th ASEAN Plus Individual Open Championship in Misamis Occidental, Philippines, on 7/9 — a direct title under the event's FIDE-approved conditions rather than the usual three norms and a 2500 rating — and the first grandmaster from Madhya Pradesh.
GM Liam Putnam (FIDE 2495), No. 7 on the US Chess Under 21 list, beat Russian GM Vladimir Belous (2452) in round seven of the 20th SPICE Cup in Bellevue, a day after beating Emilio Cordova, while GM Jianchao Zhou (FIDE 2556), No. 23 on the US Chess overall list, lost to Armenian GM Arman Mikaelyan (2499) and Siddharth Singh (FIDE 2426), No. 2 on the Under 16 list, drew Indian GM Harikrishnan.A.Ra (2502).
Krishnan Sasikiran won the 29th Open Bavarian Championship at Tegernsee on tiebreak after four players finished on 7½/9 — Frederik Svane second, Roven Vogel third and 17-year-old Indian FM Arun Daakshin fourth — and G.N. Gopal, who had led after round six, beat IM Evan Park (FIDE 2452), No. 13 on the US Chess Under 21 list, in Sunday's final round to finish fifth on 7.
US Chess newly rated 115 events across 33 states, median size 17, led by the 359-player Hunter November tournament in New York, where Jordan Kim, Dylan Lam and Andrew Chan shared the Future Masters section on 3.5, the 318-player Illinois All Grade State Championship in Naperville and the 295-player 21st Los Angeles Open in Irvine.
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.

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:
Josh Smith, the 49-year-old Arizona businessman who plays bullet as "BulletGrandpa," won game 28 of Saturday's 100-game match against Daniil Dubov, so the grandmaster's 99-1 finish paid him $10,000 rather than the $20,000 promised for a clean sweep, chess.com reports.
IM Evan Park (FIDE 2452), No. 13 on the US Chess Under 21 list, beat GM Nijat Abasov (2585) in round eight of the Open Bavarian Championship at Tegernsee, a round in which Frederik Svane ended G.N. Gopal's lead and nine players reached 6½/8 ahead of Sunday's final round at 10:00.
GM Liam Putnam (FIDE 2495), No. 7 on the US Chess Under 21 list, beat Peruvian GM Emilio Cordova (2490) in round six of the 20th SPICE Cup in Bellevue, IM Rose Atwell (FIDE 2319), No. 4 on the Girls Under 21 list, beat WIM Laurie Qiu (2145) in an all-American pairing, and GM Jianchao Zhou (FIDE 2556), No. 23 on the US Chess overall list, drew GM Vladimir Belous (2452).
GM Irina Krush (FIDE 2415), No. 3 on the US Chess Women's list, beat WCM Alice Chovanec (1984) and drew FM Megan Althea Paragua (2281) in rounds two and three of the Marshall Chess Club's Mona Karff Memorial Women's Championship. US Chess newly rated 78 events across 22 states, median size 24, led by a 459-player scholastic in Mission, Texas, and the 409-player CIS Manhattan Chess Day.
FIDE's own preview of the Geneva match, an essay by Yannick Pelletier, says Gukesh Dommaraju has slipped to 26th on the rating list at 2710 after inconsistent results since the middle of 2025, and frames the defense against Javokhir Sindarov as "the greatest challenge of his career: rediscovering his best form."
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.

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:
John D. "Jay" Rockefeller IV, the former West Virginia senator who sponsored the 2010 Senate resolution that made National Chess Day official and the father of US Chess Vice President John Rockefeller V, died Friday at 89, US Chess reports.
Pranav Venkatesh, 20, won the World Junior Blitz Championship in Al Ain on 10.5/13, a point clear of three players, adding blitz gold to the rapid silver he took earlier in the week and the classical World Junior title he won last year; Valeria Kleymenova of Russia took the girls' title on 10/13.
Siddharth Singh (FIDE 2426), No. 2 on the US Chess Under 16 list, beat GM Francesco Sonis (2547) in round four of the 20th SPICE Cup, then lost to GM Arman Mikaelyan (2499) of Armenia; GM Jianchao Zhou (FIDE 2556) and GM Liam Putnam (FIDE 2495) each followed a round-four draw with a round-five win, and IM Evan Park (FIDE 2452) drew GM Emre Can (2528), one of Thursday's co-leaders, at the Open Bavarian Championship.
Hikaru Nakamura won the first of Thursday's three 3 0 Thursday tournaments with 10 points, beating Ian Nepomniachtchi and Magnus Carlsen on the way, as chess.com confirmed that chess returns to the Esports World Cup in Riyadh in 2027 with Carlsen the only player yet guaranteed a place and twelve more to come through a reworked Champions Chess Tour.
US Chess newly rated 42 events across 18 states, median size 12, led by the 43-player Halloween Swiss in West Chester, PA, where Kritarth Acharya won the Upper section on 4, and the 41-player Knights of Cypress in Texas; in Alton, Illinois, a middle school club in its fourth year hosted Devanshi Chowdada, 15, whom RiverBender places among the top 30 players nationally in her age range.
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.

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:
GM Liam Putnam (FIDE 2495), No. 7 on the US Chess Under 21 list, drew Italian GM Francesco Sonis (2547) in round three of the 20th SPICE Cup in Bellevue, where 25 Americans are on the relay, and Siddharth Singh (FIDE 2425), No. 2 on the Under 16 list, held Peruvian GM Emilio Cordova (2490); at Tegernsee, IM Evan Park (FIDE 2452), No. 13 on the Under 21 list, beat Slovak GM Milan Pacher (2301) in round six of the Open Bavarian Championship.
FIDE has appointed Emil Sutovsky chief executive of FIDE Enterprises, a Swiss company wholly owned by the federation that will run its commercial activities, and named three more members of the president's team: Håkan Jalling as representative for Olympic Games inclusion, Darcy Lima as representative for institutional dialogue and Alexander Martynov as senior adviser.
Xiao Tong, born in 2008 and rated 2476, beat defending champion Yu Yangyi (2679) in the first game of the Chinese Rapid Championship final in Shaoxing, after eliminating Ding Liren in the quarterfinals, and Yu answered with a win of his own on the relay; at Tegernsee, G.N. Gopal became the Open Bavarian Championship's first sole leader, on 5½/6, by beating 15-year-old IM Hussain Besou.
Saint Louis University, on 4½/5, has the inside track to the Collegiate Chess League's top seed over defending champion UTD, on 5/6, with quarterfinals set for November 14, chess.com reports, and an r/chess post carries the title of a Chess Life farewell to organizer Bill Goichberg, 1942-2026.
Magnus Carlsen will be top seed when the Total Chess pilot opens in Budapest on November 10, and Leonard Barden writes that he is approaching it more seriously than any event since defending his classical title in 2021; Peter Svidler, who will commentate Geneva, puts Javokhir Sindarov's chances against Gukesh Dommaraju at 55-45 and says 60 percent would be too high.
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.

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:
US Chess membership stood at 118,303 on October 31, which the federation calls a new all-time high: an increase of 2,184 over September that passes the March 2024 record of 117,716.
Ding Liren is out of the Chinese Rapid Championship in Shaoxing, eliminated in the quarterfinals by Xiao Tong (2476) in a blitz tiebreak after four drawn rapid games, and defending champion Yu Yangyi (2679), whom ChessBase calls the only rating favorite to survive the round, won the first three games of his semifinal against Xu Xiangyu (2594) on the relay.
GM Liam Putnam (FIDE 2495), No. 7 on the US Chess Under 21 list, beat Canadian CM Karson Lu (2049) as the 20th SPICE Cup Open opened with 20 Americans on its relay, and IM Evan Park (FIDE 2452), No. 13 on the Under 21 list, drew reigning German champion GM Leonardo Costa (2557) in round five of the Open Bavarian Championship at Tegernsee.
Khumoyun Begmuratov of Uzbekistan won the World Junior Rapid Championship in Al Ain on 7.5/9, ahead of V. Pranav, who had opened with six wins from six, and Azerbaijan's Read Samadov, while Eline Roebers of the Netherlands took the girls' title; the two reports of her final score differ.
IM Hussain Besou, 15, beat Hungarian GM Peter Acs (2555), the 2001 World Junior champion and seventh seed, in round five of the Open Bavarian Championship to join five grandmasters on 4½/5, and in Chennai GM Pranesh M (2673) beat GM Leon Luke Mendonca (2617) to take the sole lead in the Chola Chess Open after six rounds.
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.

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:
Alireza Firouzja beat Fabiano Caruana in the last round of Titled Tuesday to take the event ahead of Hikaru Nakamura, Hans Niemann and Caruana, as chess.com confirmed the first eight qualifiers for Speed Chess Championship XI — a $250,000, 16-player knockout whose live finals go to London's 180 Studios on February 5-7, 2027.
Denis Lazavik won the KazChess Masters in Almaty on 6½/9 without a loss, needing only Tuesday's 58-move draw with Aram Hakobyan, while 14-year-old Kazakh IM Mark Smirnov, youngest and lowest rated of the ten players, earned his first grandmaster norm by beating GM Denis Makhnev (2581) with Black for a 2666 performance.
IM Evan Park (FIDE 2452), No. 13 on the US Chess Under 21 list, beat German FM Matthias Tonndorf (2218) in round four of the Open Bavarian Championship at Tegernsee, where three Indians who have won every game lead, and at the FIDE World Senior Championship in Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia, Frederick Rhine (FIDE 1983) beat Israeli IM Nathan Birnboim (2294) in the 65+ Open.
US Chess newly rated 23 events across 16 states, median size 12, led by the 62-player 21st Oktoberfest Open in New Britain, Connecticut, where Nelson Castaneda, No. 61 on the US Chess Age 50+ list, won the Open section on 4½; in Indianapolis, Madison Brown, No. 40 on the Girls Under 16 list, won the Kings section of the 29-player Tuesday Weekly on 3.
Total Chess has named the broadcast team for its Budapest pilot, which opens November 10: IM Levy Rozman, known as GothamChess, fronts a new daily Total Chess Highlight Show, with Jovanka Houska, David Howell, Fiona Steil-Antoni and Anna Rudolf on the main broadcast of the 24-player event at the Anantara New York Palace Budapest Hotel.
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.