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The FIDE Candidates Chess 2022 was announced in late December last year, with the dates, place and the sponsor. FIDE disclosed the event will take place in Madrid, June 16 – July 7 The Candidates Chess 2022 is an 8 player double round robin tournament with some of the world’s top Grandmasters. As the players are qualifying for the Candidates Tournament through the other FIDE events such as Grand Swiss, World Cup and Grand Prix, the participants of the event are usually known by the end of these tournaments.

English Chess Federation announces English Championships in May, the British Championship in August, and the relaunched ECF Grand Prix from July 2022 to June 2023, all supported by Chessable.

After global (no pun intended) pressure from the chess community, Chess.com rectified and changed the title of their new event from World Championship to Global Championship.

Magnus Carlsen and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa will duke it out for the Oslo Esports Cup title tomorrow after India’s boy wonder finally cracked under pressure. Three points ahead going into the penultimate round of the $210,000 event, 16-year-old Pragg suffered a painful quickfire reverse against Poland’s World Cup winner Jan-Krzysztof Duda.

The 1st Chessable Sunway Formentera Chess Festival starts tomorrow in Formentera – the smallest Spanish Balearic island in the Mediterranean Sea. The Festival takes place from April 29 to May 8 with a total prize fund of 20.500 euros and a wide range of events.

The main events are Open tournaments: A and B, being played in 10 rounds, swiss system. 51 players from 20 countries will compete in the A tournament, including 33 titled players.

Starting rank list 1st Chessable Sunway Open A:

Both GM Fabiano Caruana and GM Irina Krush managed to qualify to the finals in day 6 of the American Cup, after drawing the second game and avoiding a playoff in their Champions Bracket matches against GM Leinier Dominguez and FM Alice Lee. In the Elimination Bracket, GM Levon Aronian defeated GM Ray Robson 2-0, while WGM Tatev Abrahamyan ended up winning a playoff against WGM Begim Tokhirjonova. Taking place tomorrow will be the finals of the Elimination Bracket, with Aronian facing Dominguez and Lee taking on Abrahamyan for one more chance at overall tournament victory.

Now close to a week after the creation of a new world championship , there is no official reaction by FIDE. This middleground of no rectification by Chess.com and no reaction by FIDE only fuels the rumors on behind the scenes deals, while at the same time the attrition to the image of chess and the World Champion title.

Devaluation of chess titles, disrespect to history, possibility for behind the scenes deals, confusion. These are just some of the issues pointed out by chess fans on the internet regarding the recent decision of Chess.com to hold “Chess.com world championship”. For those knowing chess history and possessing knowledge of the foundations of the chess world, the handing of another non-FIDE “world champion” title is a huge multi-level problem that might open up a Pandora’s box.

We cannot help but put Danny Gormally’s tweet in our Tweet of the Day column. Discussing the new “world champion” title, Danny Gormally in a sarcastic answer to Jon Ludvig Hammer says, “I have crowned myself world champion of my bedroom.” Thank you Danny, now we are all champions!

For many days after the appearance of another “world champion” title, the governing body of chess FIDE is silent on the issue. FIDE’s silence has spurred into multiple theories ranging from FIDE’s looming bankruptcy to direct correlations with the Russia-Ukraine conflict.