W ostatniej rundzie arcymistrz Bartosz Soćko stracił złoty medal przez mecz... z żoną💁‍♀️😅 Szachowe małżeństwo zagrało fair play, arcymistrzyni Monika Soćko pokonała męża i sprawiła, że ten musi zadowolić się srebrem mistrzostw Mazowsza w szachach szybkich. Na osłodę... 🥉 Moniki

The ugly truth about France and some of the other European countries currently in turmoil - and which none of the politicians want to admit because it'd be political suicide - is that you can't solve the problem by going after immigrants (as the right asserts) or the rich (as the left asserts), but you could solve it by going after the old. One extraordinary statistic for you: people over 60 in France, a quarter of the population, own 60% of France's wealth, non-financial and financial (ofce.fr/pdf/revue/2025/3-192…). And here is another crazy statistic: that same quarter of the population, those above 60, receive nearly two-thirds of all social spending by the French government (previssima.fr/actualite/prot…) - which is famously among the highest in the world (France's government spending is an insane 57.3% of GDP). Last statistic: they make up about 40% of voters because they're a third of registered voters (insee.fr/fr/statistiques/266…), and they turn out far more than anyone else (franceinfo.fr/elections/sond…). Put our 3 statistics together and there's almost a bit of an apartheid situation here: the old own most of the country's wealth, collect most of the social spending and have the political power to keep it that way. Which makes them a de-facto rentier class, living off assets and transfers paid for by younger generations. And, of course, at the risk of stating a truism, the future is built by the young. Yet France keeps effectively taking money away from them to give it to those whose working lives are already behind them - and need the money far less since they already own the country's wealth. What about inheritance, I hear you ask? That's the funniest/saddest aspect: given that life expectancy has kept rising, the French now inherit a home at 54 on average. The most common case is someone in their 80s leaving it to heirs in their 50s, in effect the very old transferring wealth to the about-to-be old (insee.fr/fr/statistiques/fic…). You can add this to our earlier apartheid statement: on top of all the rest, even when the old finally let go of their wealth, it stays within their own "camp". That's my personal situation, incidentally: I'm 42, my father is 71 and he is starting to look at ways to pass things on to me and my siblings, when our professional lives are already well settled, so it'll arrive when it changes things the least, which is pretty much the French system in a nutshell. Now, I get that there'd be some unfairness in going after them: they paid into the system their entire working lives, playing by the rules of a social contract that told them if they paid up they'd collect at the end. Changing the rules now means breaking that promise, which is admittedly unfair. But there's no magic wealth tree in any society: you can only take it where it is. That's the way most major societal transformations end up happening. They're often triggered by a catastrophic event (the so-called "four horsemen": mass-mobilisation war, revolution, state collapse, plague) BUT what really drives change is a transfer: wealth gets pried from the privileged class who've been sitting on it and handed to those who'll build what comes next. So, in theory and in an ideal world, you can do without the catastrophic event and directly proceed with the transfer... The fact that in France, and elsewhere in Europe, it's the youth protesting is probably no coincidence - even though they don't frame it as a generational fight. And even though, cruel irony, the left politicians many of them march behind promise to bring the retirement age back to 60 (lcp.fr/actualites/legislativ…), which would make the situation even worse. Let's say they understand intuitively that the system is stacked against them, even if they haven't yet figured out how. And politicians are obviously doing what politicians do, meaning pandering to the people who actually vote, while pointing the young towards easier - and politically convenient - scapegoats. To be clear I'm not saying it's the only problem in France, VERY far from it. I'm also not saying that all old people in France live a lavish lifestyle at the expense of younger generations: there are also plenty of very poor retirees who, if anything, would deserve more. What I am saying is that it's probably the biggest elephant in the room: everyone can see it, nobody dares mention it - no politician, from any side, wants to run on cutting grandma's pension - and it makes every other problem harder to fix.

Two legends of the game! Vasyl Ivanchuk was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame, with former World Champion Garry Kasparov attending the ceremony to personally congratulate him on this well-deserved honor! Congratulations, Vasyl!🎊🎊 #GarryKasparov #vasylivanchuk #chess

Anatoly Karpov: "In the USSR, the players were slaves of the system"

Flash sale of Sergey Voronkov's books on Forward Chess, with a whopping 50% off! This offer includes the first volume of “Alexander Alekhine - Russian Sphinx” and all three volumes of “Masterpieces and Dramas of the Soviet Championships”. forwardchess.com/products/sp…

Dmitry Andreikin had a simple win with …Ra1+, but he decided to chase away the White queen with …b4 before going for the kill. It turns out that was a mistake, giving Faustino Oro a chance to turn the tables. Can you see how?

Legendary Grandmaster Vasyl Ivanchuk, who is in St. Louis for his induction into the World Chess Hall of Fame, listens attentively as former World Champion Garry Kasparov delivers his keynote address at the St. Louis Chess Conference. #garrykasparov #chess

Reykjavik Open is closer than you think!

Fully agree with Garry. For many years FIDE downgraded the requirements for achieving the GM title. Now it is not so easy again, with the Swiss rule

"Donald Trump and his family are executing corruption at a scale never previously contemplated in the American experiment. If we are to ever graduate from this era of brazen graft, the first step is to notice." A service, from @MattWelch. reason.com/2026/07/09/the-mo…

Is it not "Women's Chess" after all?

To your point, when you look at his recent events you can see his TPRs have been trending over 2500 - I count 5 events with a TPR over 2500 this year: radarchess.com/players/55653… You can also use this page to track norm and title info. The game requirements are clearly listed.

What an extraordinary achievement! A testament to hard work, dedication, and perseverance👏

¿Queréis un poco de ajedrez convertido en arte? Dedicad unos minutillos a esta joyita que acabo de publicar en mi columna diaria: elpais.com/ajedrez/partidas/… #Ajedrez #Chess

This game was a draw. But, as @TarjeiJS correctly pointed out, this would have been a 7-game norm, and Roman needs a 9-game norm for the title. He still has some margin to break the record though, and he is obviously playing at GM level already.

"A puzzle or a (chess)game is not a diversion; it is a crucible for the soul and the mind. In the context of learning, a toy is not a passive object, but an active agent in cognitive and emotional development." ❤ This is a short excerpt from the essay co-authored with Ernő Rubik, which was recently published in The @Telegraph. This very thought also served as the fuel for the Judit Polgar Global Chess Festival this year. #ChessConnectsUs #CriticalThinking @Rubiks_Official

This week in Barcelona, I dropped my phone in a taxi. It simply slipped out of my pocket, and I didn’t notice until minutes later. It was a brand-new iPhone Pro Max that I’d bought just weeks ago, so I was furious with myself. Fortunately, I managed to reach the driver, who was already on the other side of the city. He came all the way back to return it to me and wouldn’t even accept payment for the ride. And so I didn’t need to pull a Botvinnik – the modern-day equivalent being probably remotely wiping my phone, I guess.