How the Women’s World Chess Championship works, and what Vaishali faces
Twelve classical games, a tiebreak cascade, and a five-time champion waiting. Here is what the format rewards and what history says about challengers.
J. R. Patel ·
Chess news, analysis and explainers
Formats, ratings and the rise of Indian chess — how Elo actually works, how team events set board order, and why the talent pool keeps growing.
How the World Chess Championship works, and what the format rewards
Fourteen classical games, a tiebreak cascade, and a structure designed to produce the most legitimate winner chess knows how to find.
J. R. Patel ·
India finish silver as Uzbekistan win the Olympiad at home
The defending champions could not repeat. A final-round loss from the World Champion, a host nation peaking at the right moment, and the gold slips away.
J. R. Patel ·
Ganges Grandmasters win the Global Chess League
Nepomniachtchi beats Carlsen on the Icon board, Tsolakidou clinches it against Humpy. A 7-5 aggregate over Alpine APL Pipers crowns a second title.
J. R. Patel ·
Praggnanandhaa wins the Grand Chess Tour, the first Indian to do it
Trailing by six points on the final day, he won both rapid games to seize the lead and held on through the blitz to beat Caruana 15–13.
J. R. Patel ·
How the Grand Chess Tour works, with the scoring system
Five events across classical, rapid and blitz, then a knockout final. Points accumulate differently at each time control.
J. R. Patel ·
How board order works in team chess
The captain decides who plays which board, and there is no rule requiring rating order. Here is why the World Champion is fourth.
J. R. Patel ·
Gukesh defends his World Championship title rated 75 points below his challenger
A defending champion lower-rated than the challenger is rare. Understanding why it happened explains how chess ratings actually work.
J. R. Patel ·
How the Chess Olympiad works, and why India start as favourites
A Swiss-system team event across eleven rounds. India arrive as defending champions with four of their Budapest five and a record field of 400 teams.
J. R. Patel ·
How the Candidates Tournament works, with the scoring
Eight players, fourteen rounds, one point for a win — and a tiebreak system that has decided the whole thing more than once.
J. R. Patel ·
Classical, rapid and blitz: the formats and time controls explained
The same game with three different clocks — and, in practice, three different skills with three separate world champions.
J. R. Patel ·
How Elo ratings actually work, with the formula
A rating is not a score. It is a prediction, updated by exactly how wrong that prediction turned out to be.
J. R. Patel ·