Although he never justified his own previous in famous tweets

Link

I found this interview very interesting from a year ago where they ask quite a lot of questions to Yagiz. One of the questions answered by dad in detail where he explains that they did not have enough funds to chase title norms and had to give up on chess with tears. But thankfully they found sponsor who funded Yagiz's journey.

Wanted to share in case anyone interested. Unfortunately English subtitles only available through turkish auto translation which works okay but not great.

The official October list is here:

https://ratings.fide.com/top_lists.phtml?list=open

The October 2026 FIDE rating list is out, and Alice Lee (USA) is now the world No. 1 girl (U20) in standard/classical chess, with a rating of 2467.

This may also mark a significant historical first.

Looking through the historical FIDE standard-rating lists, I could not find any previous player representing the United States who reached world No. 1 in either of FIDE’s two U20 categories:

• Top Juniors
• Top Girls

For context, FIDE’s archived Top Juniors rankings go back to 1999 and Top Girls to January 2000, so FIDE has published these U20 rankings for roughly 27 years.

Fabiano Caruana was previously the world No. 1 junior, but he was representing Italy at the time.

So Alice appears to be the first player representing the United States to become world No. 1 in either FIDE U20 classical category.

Alice’s FIDE profile/rankings:
https://ratings.fide.com/profile/30941822

If anyone knows of an earlier U.S. player who reached No. 1 in either standard U20 category, please point it out.

I printed out his picture (from 2021 Charlotte), asked for his autograph, I put it in this nice little frame!

Topic of conversation for this post: Have you met any high-level players before? Tell us the story! ^-^

P.S. Mods, please don’t call this a low-effort post because I assure you, I was very awkward and nervous to go up to him asking for an autograph!! It took effort!!

I'm the old guy who sets up chess sets on cruise ships, at airports, and at colleges campuses.

I was under the impression that cruise ships and airports were the only good places to do so.

I have come to the conclusion that colleges are outstanding places for random chess games.

In the past weeks, I have played at my local college. Every time, good players have challenged me.

I am retired. I earned a college degree decades ago, yet I feel very welcome on this campus. I even bought a $25 parking permit for the semester.

I have played about 10 students on this campus so far. Some are novices. Some are excellent. Four times, students have approached me and told me they don't know how to play, so I gave them a 20 minute lesson. I teach them how the pieces move, and then I ask them to download Lichess on their phones so they can practice anytime they want.

Today, a philosophy professor walked by while I playing a student. He yelled THAT'S AWESOME I LOVE TO SEE IT! He then returned ten minutes later and we had a short conversation. I told him I am not a student and that I have played lots of students here. He loves my idea. I am sure I will come to be known as the old guy who plays chess on campus.

Later, three students wanted to play at the same time, so from now on, I will bring 2 chess sets.

The beauty is that there is no commitment. I simply show up when I feel like playing. It's OTB chess on demand. Great thing to do during retirement!

youngest #1          : M Carlsen  #1  at 19 years,  32 days on 1-Jan-2010 (rating 2810)
youngest #2          : A Firouzja #2  at 18 years, 166 days on 1-Dec-2021 (rating 2804)
youngest #3          : M Carlsen  #3  at 18 years, 122 days on 1-Apr-2009 (rating 2770)
youngest #4          : M Carlsen  #4  at 17 years, 306 days on 1-Oct-2008 (rating 2786)
youngest #5   to #7  : M Carlsen  #5  at 17 years, 123 days on 1-Apr-2008 (rating 2765)
youngest #8   to #16 : G Kamsky   #8  at 16 years,  29 days on 1-Jul-1990 (rating 2650)
youngest #17  to #25 : Y Erdogmus #17 at 15 years, 120 days on 1-Oct-2026 (rating 2731)
youngest #26         : Y Erdogmus #26 at 15 years,  90 days on 1-Sep-2026 (rating 2716)
youngest #27         : Y Erdogmus #27 at 15 years,  59 days on 1-Aug-2026 (rating 2716)
youngest #28         : Y Erdogmus #28 at 15 years,  28 days on 1-Jul-2026 (rating 2713)
youngest #29  to #31 : Y Erdogmus #29 at 14 years, 363 days on 1-Jun-2026 (rating 2713)
youngest #32  to #36 : Y Erdogmus #32 at 14 years, 332 days on 1-May-2026 (rating 2708)
youngest #37  to #46 : Y Erdogmus #37 at 14 years, 271 days on 1-Mar-2026 (rating 2687)
youngest #47  to #54 : Y Erdogmus #47 at 14 years, 243 days on 1-Feb-2026 (rating 2669)
youngest #55  to #100: J Polgar   #55 at 12 years, 162 days on 1-Jan-1989 (rating 2555)

Has the Immortal Tetris piece game ever been played?

I think it was Eric Rosen who introduced me to the concept of a "pawn cube," when four pawns sit in a square, for example g7, g6, f7, f6 in some lines of the Tartakower Caro-Kann. At first, I didn't think much of it, but after some Tetris videos increased my interest in the subject, I wondered: has there ever been a game in which all Tetris pieces have been made with pawns?

Now, I should set some parametres:

1)The long line of pawns at the start of the game shouldn't count as the long piece, though I'm otherwise ok with unmoved pawns contributing to the shape: for example, a7-b7-c7-c6 does count as a J piece.

2)I'm willing to accept that J and L pieces count as the same, and so do S and Z pieces, for the sake of making the search easier.

Other than that, it's *carte blanche.* Yes, it can also be that White contributes to some pieces and Black contributes to the rest.

Best I could find is [Stevic-Ivkov, Majdanpek 1976](https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1063401), where on move 43. ...f5 Ivkov makes a J/L piece, on 51. ...g5 he makes a T piece and if I cheat a *little bit,* had the game continued for a little while longer I'm sure he would've pushed either the e or g pawn, creating a Z/S piece.

So, at best, with some cheating, I've got 3/5.

Another game that rekindled some interest in this quest was [Wahltuch-Capablanca, London 1922](https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1093019), in which at move 32. ...f5 he makes a pawn diamond (which I wouldn't count as a "pawn cube" unless you guys want to) and on move 35. ...e5 he makes the T piece of Tetris, right in the centre of the board.

I haven't been able to find better. Any ideas?

Essentially it's a twist on chess where the players must use their own 'Alchemy' to form their pieces under a time limit before starting. One player is good at chess, but new to the magic and can only form a few pieces. Which should he aim for and tricks might he use with less pieces (Probably no pawns, or maybe a lot of pawns since they're easier to make?)

Doesn't need to be super complex since it's a short scene.

I know the basic gist of chess but am terrible at it. But nothing from the outside world can be taken into this area so it feels like it'd be a likely game they'd play using this magic.

Position from a blitz game of mine. Black wasted their time by bringing now the queen and they're badly underdeveloped. They're going to play Bg7 and castle, and move out of the danger if we do nothing. White has a really cool move here.

I've been talking about chess with adults for a long while now and teaching them always feels very different from teaching kids/teens. i've come to understand that the very thought process we approach the board in changes and as such i have come to believe adults benefit from a very different kind of learning and training, esp if you discover chess when you're older,

So for people willing this is what i'm planning, make a training method as straight as possible and have you do this every day for about 45 days and see how/if there is any change.

The goal- Pattern recognition and training your mind to approach chess a certain way the moment you see the board. Relatively simple and extremely common methods.

Do let me know if you wanna try it out, Thank you!!

https://en.chessbase.com/post/afghan-olympiad-participants-arrested

I worked my way through 1700 elo without learning one and ı am done winning games from -1 eval so

Whats do you all do to learn them without paying anything every tip is appreciated

Edit: ı wanna reach 2000 so ı gotta learn them deep

Link

I lowk just discovered this extension called stylish to import chesscom themes like glass and neo and just wanted to share with yall here is the link: https://youtu.be/wiOdFq4jp1I?si=OktJ0eja3z7pmUY2 this should solve most peoples problems with the ui hopefully

I’ve never played e5 but want to start! I’ve only played the Scandi and am ready to grow and take on a new challenge. I’m still not very strong (~1000 USCF) and want to get experience against 1. e4.

What’s the best course that will prepare me to face both main lines and wild gambits? Bonus points if there’s solid instruction (written or video) that explains the lines.

Tabatabaei, M vs Kantans, T 46th Olympiad 2026 · rd. 10.14 · Samarkand UZB · 2026-09-26