FIDE Chess Olympiad 2026 – Call for bids
1.1 FIDE is opening a bidding procedure to invite any federation member of FIDE or any organiser approved by the national federation to host the FIDE Chess Olympiad and FIDE Congress 2026 (see the Main Event Regulations, Competition for Players with Disabilities, and FIDE Congress). 1.2 The bid may contain special proposals on financial and commercial conditions. The FIDE Council shall decide whether these conditions are admissible. 1.3 The Bidding Form shall be filled in by an Applicant. A signed copy shall be submitted as e-mail messages to the FIDE Secretariat to office@fide.com from 3 March to 31 May 2022 by 23:59 Lausanne time (FIDE has a right to extend this deadline). All the documents shall be submitted in English. Additional documents may be requested by the FIDE General Strategy Commission (GSC) for further evaluation. 1.4 Bid Evaluation Report shall be presented by GSC for approval of FIDE Council. 1.5 Once the Organiser is granted the right to organise the event, a relevant announcement shall be made on the FIDE website.
FIDE-ISF World School Online Chess Cup 2022 postponed
By mutual decision, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and the International School Sport Federation (ISF) announce that the FIDE-ISF World School Online Chess Cup 2022 has been postponed until further notice. New dates for this online event will be announced by FIDE and ISF at a later date, with registration remaining open.
FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade: Round 2 Recap
Three victories, five draws and Grischuk’s second defeat in a row have marked the second day of the FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade, organized by World Chess Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi have scored again, and they are the only two players with two victories. The second round started at 3 PM local time, with Aleksandar Vulin – Serbia’s minister of interior affairs – making the first move in the game between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Pool A The game between Etienne Bacrot and Dmitry Andreikin ended in a draw. In the Ruy Lopez, White managed to gain a slight edge in the opening, putting pressure on Black’s position. After a few imprecise moves, however – particularly 19.Rc1 – Black got some breathing space and engineered a counter-attack on the kingside. Bacrot found a nice move 24.Bg5, securing that any further simplifications help relieve him of the pressure on the board. The game transpired into an endgame where Black was better; however, Bacrot managed to pose some problems, which Andreikin did not manage to find the correct answer for. Probably Black had to venture upon g6-g5 at some point because after the Frenchman pushed h2-h4 and f2-f4, he got out of danger. After losing in the first round, Alexander Grischuk suffered another defeat, this time at the hands of Sam Shankland. Although Grischuk was standing better on the black side of Nimzo-Indian by move 17, he allowed White to come back into the game after a suspicious 19…Nc5, sacrificing a pawn. Alexander had sufficient compensation but erred with 22…Rc6 – the game liquidated into a hopeless ending for Black despite equal material. With no better options, Grischuk resigned on the move 39. Grischuk is now the only player in the tournament without any points. Pool B Anish Giri won a second game in a row. He was better against Nikita Vitiugov, who had an easy pass in the first round following Pentala Harikrishna’s early blunder on Tuesday. The game started calmly, as Giuoco Pianissimo suggests, with both sides developing and trying to gain control of the centre. However, Anish met 14…f6? with a powerful breakthrough in the center and grabbed the initiative. Giri did not find the best way to build up pressure, and by move 20, the game was even. It did not prevent Giri from setting off some fireworks as he sacrificed his dark-squared bishop to launch an attack on the kingside. Vitiugov accepted the gift and defended with precision until move 30, when he committed a fatal error 30…c7-c5. Giri leapt at the chance, and two moves down the road, Nikita threw in the towel. With this victory, Giri is on two out of two and shows that he is in excellent form. The second pair of Pool B, Amin M. Tabatabaei and Pentala Harikrishna, made a draw in the Caro Kann. It was a lucky escape for the Iranian, who spent a lot of time in the opening and then made a blunder with 21.c4, handing over an almost decisive advantage to Black. By move 26, Black was completely dominating the board. However, instead of bringing his knight into play and going for the white king, Pentala opted to collect two pawns on the kingside, giving White time to organise a defence and “trap” Black’s queen perpetually attacking the most powerful piece. Following the game, Tabatabaei said that he is spending too much time thinking about the moves and that time management is a problem for him in this tournament. Conversely, Harikrishna said he was too hasty in his play, allowing White the repetition and even more chances to play for an advantage. Pool C Vidit Santosh Gujrathi scored a well-deserved victory over Vladimir Fedoseev in the Nimzo Indian. It was the longest game of the second round, lasting around four and a half hours. Vidit played the same line that Rapport tested against Feseev yesterday and also got some edge. White gradually restricted Black’s pieces and timely opened the centre on the move 23 to give some work for his bishop pair. Despite some time trouble the Indian was building up pressure, taking control over the proceedings. Fedoseev gave up an exchange hoping for his c-passer and active knights, but Vidit penetrated with his rooks into Black’s camp along the h-file, and that made all the difference. Fedoseev resisted, but his efforts were not enough to repel White’s advances, and he had to call it a day. “I feel very good that I managed to win these games. In the last couple of tournaments, I managed to bodge similar positions. So I’m relieved I won,” said Gujrathi after the game. The game between Alexei Shirov and Richard Rapport was the first one to finish, after just over an hour of play. Rapport surprised Shirov with the Petrov and then with 4…Nc6. “I used to have some games in this line more than 20 years ago”, Shirov recalled after the game. He spent quite some time thinking about the next move. Alexei could have opted for much sharper lines, but the seasoned GM probably concluded that he didn’t feel confident going down that path. Instead, Shirov took a safe line leading to simplifications. After exchanges in the centre, the game transpired into an opposite colour bishops endgame and the two Grandmasters agreed on a draw after the 30th move. In the post-game interview Alexei Shirov reflected on the time spent in Belgrade and the tournaments he played in the capital of former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. “It was quite a thing to play in Belgrade back then… What stood out was a big audience at the event and huge interest for chess which was rather unusual”, noted the seasoned GM. Pool D One of the most exciting games of the day took place on the board where Maxime Vacheir-Lagrave was leading the white pieces against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The Open Variation of Ruy Lopez was played, and an interesting position emerged after White’s 11th move Qe1, one that was tested in the game Vachier-Lagrave – Giri back in 2019 in Zagreb. There were several lines for Black to choose. Instead of continuing as Giri with 11…Nc5, Mamedyarov opted to castle and