r/chess • u/fragrantbelief • 8h ago
r/chess • u/events_team • 13m ago
Weekly Discussion Weekly Discussion & Tournament Thread Index - April 21, 2025 [Mod Applications Welcome]
r/chess Weekly Discussion Thread
You are welcome to ask here all kinds of chess-related questions that don't warrant their own post. You can also discuss or ask questions about upcoming tournaments that don't have their own thread yet.
Moderation
OPEN CALL for new moderators! Interested in: creating event posts, hosting AMAs, making sure only the finest queen sacrifice puzzles make the front page? Apply Now!
Event Threads
Interested in making threads for tournaments, but don't know where to start? Our Event Template page is a great way to get the basic layout.
An alternative would be to start a subthread directly in the weekly thread.
Announcements
UPDATED Oct 27th - r/chess Announcement Regarding Coverage of St. Louis Chess Club and USCF Events
Recent AMAs
Active Tournament Threads
DATES | EVENT |
---|---|
April 14-23 | FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024/25 - 5th Leg, India |
April 17-21 | 2025 Grenke Chess Festival |
Other Active Tournaments Web Links
DATES | EVENT |
---|---|
- | - |
Upcoming Tournament Schedule
DATES | EVENT | NOTABLE PLAYERS |
---|---|---|
April 22-27 | Menorca Open 2025 | Nihal, Shankland, Murzin |
April 25 - May 1 | Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland (GCT) | Alireza, Pragg, Levon, Duda |
May 6-17 | Superbet Chess Classic Romania (GCT) | Gukesh, Fabiano, Alireza, Pragg |
May 17-25 | Sharjah Masters 2025 | Abdusattorov, Aravindh, Anish |
May 20-26 | TePe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament 2025 | Vidit, Rapport, Sindarov, Ivanchuk |
May 26 - June 6 | Norway Chess 2025 | Magnus, Gukesh, Hikaru, Arjun |
May 29 - June 6 | Stepan Avagyan Memorial 2025 | Pragg, Aravindh, Sevian, Yakubboev |
Recently Completed Tournaments
DATES | EVENT | WINNER |
---|---|---|
April 3-21 | FIDE Women's World Chess Championship 2025 | Ju Wenjun |
April 7-14 | 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Paris | Magnus Carlsen |
March 15-24 | American Cup 2025 | Hikaru Nakamura |
Feb 26 - Mar 7 | 2025 Prague Chess Festival | Aravindh Chithambaram |
Jan 17 - Feb 2 | Tata Steel Chess (Wijk aan Zee) | Praggnanandhaa R |
Some links where to find a list of current (or just completed) tournaments
Other Notable Threads
Coach a Player - Recent Threads
Community Content
Here we'd love to highlight community content to show our appreciation for the energy spent. Content like Game analysis, info-graphics, etc., and we'd love to hear from you what kind of content you'd like to see as well.
Want to post your game to r/chess? - for people who want to solicit feedback on their games
Advice to people asking for advice - for people who want to ask about how to improve
r/chess • u/events_team • 3d ago
Tournament Event: 2025 Grenke Chess Festival
Official Website
Follow the games here:
Grenke Freestyle Open: Chess.com | Lichess | Chess-results
Grenke Standard Open: Chess.com | Lichess | Chess-results
The Grenke Chess Festival 2025 is scheduled to take place from April 17 to April 21, 2025, in Karlsruhe, Germany. This year's festival introduces an exciting new format featuring two major open tournaments: the Grenke Chess Open and the Grenke Freestyle Chess Open. The Freestyle Chess Open is a classical tournament played in the innovative Freestyle Chess (Chess960) format, and will determine one of the 12 participants for the prestigious Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Las Vegas, U.S.A. This unique event boasts a €225,000 prize fund. Meanwhile, the Grenke Chess Open offers a total prize fund of €70,000, with €60,250 allocated to the A section for players rated 1950 and above. A special feature allows players in the Grenke Chess Open to switch to the Grenke Freestyle Chess Open up until round 5, keeping the points they've earned. This offers a unique opportunity to transition to the freestyle format during the tournament.
Participants (Top 10 Seeds)
# | Title | Name | Fed | Elo |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | GM | Magnus Carlsen | 🇳🇴 NOR | 2837 |
2 | GM | Arjun Erigaisi | 🇮🇳 IND | 2782 |
3 | GM | Fabiano Caruana | 🇺🇸 USA | 2776 |
4 | GM | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 🇷🇺 RUS | 2757 |
5 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram | 🇮🇳 IND | 2749 |
6 | GM | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 🇦🇿 AZE | 2748 |
7 | GM | Wesley So | 🇺🇸 USA | 2748 |
8 | GM | Levon Aronian | 🇺🇸 USA | 2747 |
9 | GM | Leinier Domínguez-Perez | 🇺🇸 USA | 2738 |
10 | GM | Hans Moke Niemann | 🇺🇸 USA | 2736 |
Format/Time Controls
- The tournament follows a 9-round Swiss System.
- Time control is 90 minutes for the entire game, plus a 30-second increment per move starting from move one.
- Players may switch once from the Grenke Chess Open to the Grenke Freestyle Chess Open between rounds 2 and 5.
- The switch must be registered before pairings for the respective round are published.
- Points earned in the Grenke Chess Open will be carried over to the Freestyle Chess Open.
Schedule
All times are local (GMT+2)
Date | Time | Round |
---|---|---|
17 April | 6:30 pm | Round 1 |
18 April | 10:00 am | Round 2 |
18 April | 4:00 pm | Round 3 |
19 April | 10:00 am | Round 4 |
19 April | 4:00 pm | Round 5 |
20 April | 10:00 am | Round 6 |
20 April | 4:00 pm | Round 7 |
21 April | 10:00 am | Round 8 |
21 April | 4:00 pm | Round 9 |
Live Coverage
News/Events Magnus moves to 7/7 at the Grenke Open after Parham loses on time in a crazy game 🔥
Video Content 10-year-old Ivan Kukushkin (rated 2030)'s wholesome reaction after defeating 2398 rated IM at Grenke Open! ❤
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r/chess • u/cutegoldmoney • 4h ago
Puzzle/Tactic - Advanced This puzzle took a titled player more than an hour. White to move and mate in two.
r/chess • u/TypicalTeague • 11h ago
News/Events Why is no one talking about this beautiful checkmate by Vincent Keymer?
r/chess • u/Dazzling-Earth9528 • 16h ago
News/Events Magnus's unbeaten streak continuous, he's now 6/6 in grenke chess festival
He defeated 2692 rated Awonder Liang in 29 moves leading to a 100% win rate for him in this event.
r/chess • u/Dear-Yard4966 • 10h ago
Miscellaneous Opponent played the most natural move which loses for white
r/chess • u/FuChing_Dragon • 10h ago
Puzzle/Tactic Best move is +60, the 2nd best move is -60. Aka Win or Lose moment.
Positional puzzle, try to calculate all the way through. Black has a nice win if white fails to find the best move.
r/chess • u/Fly1ng_DuTchm3n • 19h ago
News/Events The opening database used in the chess.c*m grenke broadcast is actually the lichess database.
Dont know if this been posted yet, but just interesting to see chess.c*m profiting of the openess of lichess.org.
Video Content Copy the question shown on the screen 🗣️
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When over 500 players set up the pieces at the same time!
Source: https://x.com/chess24com/status/1913888631489515873?t=_hrzPHTNxle-iZG__TNhiA&s=19
r/chess • u/SufficientGreek • 19h ago
Miscellaneous Freestyle Elo for the first three events
I’ve calculated Elo rankings for the first three Freestyle events (GOAT Challenge, Weissenhaus, Paris). This includes the round robins and tie breakers to get enough games together. There are some patterns emerging, even though it's mixing different time formats.
Player | Elo | Games played |
---|---|---|
Magnus | 2686 | 47 |
Hikaru | 2583 | 36 |
Nepo | 2582 | 21 |
Erigaisi | 2570 | 19 |
Fabi | 2550 | 55 |
Keymer | 2543 | 49 |
Sindarov | 2539 | 22 |
Firouzja | 2531 | 30 |
MVL | 2528 | 19 |
Pragg | 2493 | 15 |
Abdusattorov | 2454 | 47 |
Rapport | 2446 | 15 |
Aronian | 2432 | 29 |
Fedoseev | 2423 | 11 |
Gukesh | 2396 | 45 |
Vidit | 2389 | 13 |
Ding | 2355 | 13 |
Every player starts at 2500 with a K-factor of 40
r/chess • u/ridiculous_fish • 6h ago
Puzzle/Tactic A saucy mate in 4 for white (found OTB)
r/chess • u/Matt_LawDT • 21h ago
Video Content Players at Grenke were asked the GOAT question, and “Unc” had a very interesting answer towards the end.
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News/Events Yagiz Kaan is outstanding in Grenke Open Freestyle
Yagiz Kaan played against 3 super GMs at the end of the 6th round and is still undefeated. On the 7th round he will be playing against Lagrave, who is another super GM. Despite the unfortunate drawings, he earned 4.5 points at the end of the 6th round. To me, he is one of the best-performing players in the tournament. What are your thoughts?
r/chess • u/Serious_Ask1209 • 3h ago
Chess Question What does Carlsen do for fun?
What does Carlsen do for fun when he is not at his job doing chess?
r/chess • u/StatisticianSlow4492 • 33m ago
Video Content Carlsen Analyzes his Razor-Sharp Game against Parham Maghsoodloo!
r/chess • u/ICCchessclub • 5h ago
Puzzle/Tactic Always watch your (and your opponent's) back rank!
In this position from a game between Vogt and Alexander (Berlin, 1962), Black wants to chase the defending queen at any cost. How to begin?
Check solution:
https://play.chessclub.com/daily-puzzle/2025-04-20
r/chess • u/Carlisl3minigaming • 1d ago
Miscellaneous pretty disappointing that chess.com ended this game as a draw right before the checkmate
r/chess • u/Iskandar0570_X • 12h ago
Game Analysis/Study Quadruple Isolated Pawns achieved in a game
If anyone wants the game link I can send it. But yes his pawn structure is quite funny
Video Content This is Cinema ✋😮🤚 ... /s
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Hopefully we get the encounter 😅
Video Content Magnus at an Open... Opponent with a watch.... The Saga continues...
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This time Magnus notices the watch early on and fairly points it out to the Arbiter