New In Chess 2025/8

6 Luck
Kasparov versus Anand.

8 NIC’s Café
Dinner with Almira Skripchenko.

12 FIDE World Cup
Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov confirmed his colossal talent and kept his cool in the final against Wei Yi. The third qualifier for the Candidates tournament was Andrey Esipenko.

20 Celeb 64
Victor Wembanyama.

38 Interview Caruana
Looking back on a successful and rewarding year, Fabiano Caruana reflects on the fragmented chess world that we find ourselves in. How many World Championships, circuits and tours can chess fans handle and understand?

46 Tournament Roundup
Starting with this issue, Boris Gelfand, the 2012 World Championship finalist, will keep track of what is happening on the chessboard. He will highlight the most interesting games and endgames that are not featured in our tournament reports.

54 Unforgiving Passion
Daniel Naroditsky passed away on October 19, 2025, at the age of 29, in his home in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was the resident grandmaster at the Charlotte Chess Center. Peter Giannatos, the founder and CEO of the Center, accepted our invitation to share his memories of ‘Danya’.

57 A Very Public Feud
Naroditsky suffered from allegations by Vladimir Kramnik, as did David Navara and others. What happened?

64 Interview Granda Zuniga
Julio Granda from Peru reached a peak rating of 2699 without ever studying in earnest or preparing for his games.

72 Is it a Human or a Machine?
The creators of AlphaZero are again using chess as a laboratory for Artificial Intelligence.

74 James Altucher
My first OTB Grandmaster win.

76 The Scoresheet
Mikhail Tal-Robert Byrne, 1966.

78 How to Improve
Rating goals can sharpen your focus and accelerate your progress.

81 The Killer Blow
Puzzles selected by Jacob Aagaard.

84 The Model Game
In the Dutch Defence, Black tries to gain space at the expense of weakening the kingside.

88 Sadler on Books
Velimirovic’ name is immortal in the collective chess memory.

96 Jan Timman
Attacks may flourish brilliantly or flounder tragically, but dynamic and tactically rich chess is always fascinating to watch.

106 Just Checking
What would Andy Woordward love to learn?