The Week in Chess

1. Clutch Chess: The Legends 2026 - Games and results

   Clutch Chess: The Legends was a match between Garry Kasparov and Veselin Topalov held over three days at the Saint Louis Chess Club. The games were Chess960. There were two time controls: Rapid (Games 1, 2, 5, 6, 9 and 10) 25+10spm and Blitz (3, 4, 7, 8, 11 and 12) 5m+3spm. The Clutch Chess is all about the scoring; day one has a normal score, day 2 has double day 1 and day 3 is triple day one, the idea being that there is a building excitement. There was also bonus money, up to $24,000 that rolled over to the final two games if there was a draw. I cannot currently display Chess960 games, Topalov won the match 16-8, The rapid portion saw Topalov win a rapid game on day one and Kasparov on day 3, the rest were drawn. Topalov won 5 of the 6 blitz games only losing one, on the first day.

2. Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2026 - Games and results

   The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League took place in Bengaluru, India 5th-13th September 2026. 6 Teams played over 10 rounds in rapid (10m+2spm) chess. The winners were Ganges Grandmasters with Ian Nepomniachtchi as the Legend and Levon Aronian as their board 2. Magnus Carlsen's Alpine APL Pipers finished second after losing the final. Nepomniachtchi was allowed to escape a lost position against Magnus Carlsen and turned it round for a win. FYERS American Gambits finished in 3rd after beating CheQ Mumba Masters.

3. Legends and Prodigies II 2026 - Games and results

   The second Legends and Prodigies tournament took place in Madrid Mon 7th to Sat 12th Sep 2026. David Anton Guijarro was a convincing winner with a score of 7.5/10 a point and a half clear of Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara, prodogy Faustino Oro finished on 5.5 points. Francisco Fiorito won the B-tournament with 7/9.

4. European Senior Team Championship 2026 - Games and results

   The European Senior Team Championship 2026 took place Thu 27th August to Fri 4th September 2026. In the +50 event final Standings: 1st England 1, 17pts. 2nd Italy, 16pts. 3rd-4th Netherlands were just ahead of Slovakia on tie-break after they both scored 13pts. In the +65 final 1st Slovenia who overtook England on tie-break after winning their final round 4-0 against SG Riehen Switzerland, both teams scored 16pts and they were a point clear of Italy.

5. Season Four of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League - Start

   The 2026 Tech Mahindra Global Chess League runs Sat 5th-13th Sept in Bengaluru, India. It uses a rapid time control of 20 minutes plus 2 seconds a move. Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja and Viswanathan Anand star. League: 6 teams 10 matches, the top two finishers play for the title, the next two for 3rd-4th.

6. TCh-ESP 1st Div 2026 - Games and results

   The Spanish CECLUB 1st Div took place Thu 27th August to Wed 2nd September 2026. Club Ajedrez Solvay headed by Vasyl Ivanchuk won the title.

   Final Standings: 1st Club Ajedrez Solvay, 14.0 points. 2nd Andreu Paterna, 9.0. 3rd Platja Daro Club Escacs, 8.0. 4th Ciudad Naranco, 7.0. 5th-7th Granada Sidn-civica-nazaries-trevenque, Club Ajedrez Sestao and Gros Xake Taldea, 6.0. 8th Ca Fundacion La Caja, 0.0. 8 teams.

7. Green Hills Resort Masters 2026 - Games and results

   The Green Hills Resort Masters took place 30th-31st August in the Bostanlyk district which is 75km from Tashkent. The event was one day of rapid and one of blitz, the rapid games counted double.

   Nodirbek Yakubboev was something of a surprise winner, in the rapid he scored 6/7, which converted to 12 points, 3 points clear of the field going into the second day of blitz. In spite of finishing only 6th of 8 in the blitz he just hung on to win by half a point from Nodirbek Abdusattorov who beat him in their individual blitz game. Vladislav Artemiev finished in third place and Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus finished in fourth; Shakhriyar Mamedyarov had a terrible couple of days finishing last in the rapid and 7th in the blitz.

8. Sofia Cup 2026 - Games and results

   The Sofia Cup, also known as the Balkan Rapid and Blitz Championships took place 29th to 30th August 2026. Players: Alireza Firouzja Rauf Mamedov, Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli, Vojtech Plat, Leon Livaic, Sanan Sjugirov, Ediz Gurel, Ivan Cheparinov etc.

   Rauf Mamedov won the rapid event on tie-break from Alireza Firouzja and Dimitris Alexakis after all finished on 7.5/9. Firouzja was the clear winner of the blitz with 9.5/11 half a point clear of Ediz Gurel and Mamedov .