England's talented 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan posted her finest personal showing last Saturday by beating France's 2628-rated grandmaster Marc'Andria Maurizzi, aged 19, during the first round of the Dole Trophy held in Aix-en-Provence. Maurizzi captured the world under-20 junior crown in 2023 and currently holds the French national title.

Sivanandan had previously overcome two grandmasters, yet none matched Maurizzi's stature, making her feat a fresh world age record for a girl defeating a grandmaster above 2600. The Frenchman controlled the edge through the opening 27 moves before erring into a tactic that cost his queen without sufficient return.

The earlier record belonged to the greatest women's player ever, Judit Polgar, who bested GM Lajos Portisch, a onetime world title contender then past 50, during the 1988 Hungarian Championship at the age of 12 years and two months.

At 11 years and four months, Sivanandan also ranks as the fifth youngest pre-teen to topple a 2600-plus rated grandmaster, after Nodirbek Abdusattorov at nine, Faustino Oro at 10, and Roman Shogdzhiev along with Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu at 11 years and one month.

Sivanandan could not sustain her top form into Sunday's second round, falling to Israeli international master Benny Aizenberg, yet on Monday in round three she produced another fine outcome by drawing with GM Maxim Rodshtein, Israel's current number two. Rodshtein's highest rating reached 2710 ten years ago, with wins including the Israel Championship and the notable Rilton Cup in Stockholm.

Following Thursday's sixth round out of nine, Sivanandan had tallied three points versus mostly stronger opposition and remained in the hunt for her second norm, of three required, toward the women's grandmaster title. She earned her initial WGM norm at age 10, another world age record, at the same Dole Open in 2025.

The Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters event, which concluded on Wednesday, marked another triumph for Alireza Firouzja, who reclaimed a spot among the live classical ratings top 10. Final tallies showed Firouzja (France) with 4.5 out of 7, Dmitry Andreikin (Fide/Russia) and Arjun Erigaisi (India) on 4, Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan), Pranesh Munirethinam and Nihal Sarin (both India) all at 3.5, Hans Niemann (US) with 3, and Gukesh Dommaraju (India) on 2.

Reigning world champion Gukesh endured another poor 2026. After weak showings earlier in Wijk aan Zee and Prague, plus a last-place finish among six in Oslo, he ended last among eight in his hometown of Chennai without a single victory. His live rating fell to a low of 31st at 2703, just above the elite 2700 threshold. One classical event remains, the Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, ahead of his title match versus in-form challenger Javokhir Sindarov.

The signs appear unfavorable, yet the championship match opens with a fresh slate, and Gukesh may still regain his 2024 level when he claimed the Candidates and then defeated China's Ding Liren for the crown.

The Fide presidential election occurs in September amid the 2026 Olympiad in Samarkand. Nominations close on Sunday, with four candidates so far.

1: Arkady Dvorkovich, the sitting Russian in office since 2018, would have been favored for a third term, but on Thursday the EU imposed personal sanctions including a visa ban and asset freeze over his alleged involvement, which he rejects, in supporting chess events in Russian-occupied Ukraine. Dvorkovich has paused his presidential duties. Fide deputy president, India's former world champion GM Viswanathan Anand, serves as interim leader. Dvorkovich's chosen deputy for the vote would have been Timur Turlov, head of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation and billionaire chair of Nasdaq-listed Freedom Holding, who now has until a 26 July cutoff to run for Fide president. Chess.com features coverage on the effects for global chess from these events.

2: Jan Henric Buettner, the German multi-millionaire who launched Freestyle Chess featuring random back-rank piece placement. Buettner's deputy would be Malcolm Pein, executive editor of CHESS magazine and England's international director. The Buettner-Pein slate supported the victor in last weekend's European Chess Union elections.

3: Wadim Rosenstein, another German multi-millionaire and leader of WR Holdings, a broad international firm. Rosenstein backed Fide's new Rapid and Blitz team events and competed on the amateur board for WR Chess squads that took gold in 2024 and 2025. His newest project is the USA versus Uzbekistan rapid and blitz match set for Miami on Monday and Tuesday.

4: Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, whose self-nomination comes as a notable surprise. The unconventional ex-ruler of Kalmykia, a semi-autonomous Caspian Sea region, led Fide from 1995 to 2018 and is chiefly recalled for asserting he was taken by yellow-clad aliens aboard their craft. The full account of that lively episode appears in Edward Winter's respected Chess Notes. Ilyumzhinov's key pledge is to seek direct talks with world number one Magnus Carlsen to lure him back to classical chess: "I will begin direct negotiations with Magnus Carlsen personally. His return must not be a privilege granted to one player, but evidence that the authority of the entire World Championship system has been restored. We resolved a similar crisis before: in 2006, under Fide's auspices, we organised the reunification match in Elista between [Vlad] Kramnik and [Veselin] Topalov, ending years of division. We united the chess world then. We can do so again."

4034:1 b4!! played after six minutes. Black's c5 knight has no escape, while 1...Bxc3? loses to 2 Qxc3 with mate threats at g7 and h8. Black gave up his queen by 1...Qxb4 2 Nd5! Qxb2 3 Rxb2, but White won on material 11 moves later, and so broke Judit Polgar's world age record. The complete game is here.