6 Grenke
Magnus Carlsen and 3,000 other chess players in Karlsruhe.

8 NIC’s Café
A record-breaking prodigy from Baku.

12 Levy Rozman
The world’s most popular chess streamer on YouTube, Levy Rozman, once dreamt of having one thousand followers. Today, his YouTube channel has 6 million subscribers – and has been viewed more than 3 billion times. Every day, 100,000 people watch a GothamChess video for the first time.

17 Celeb 64
Serge Gainsbourg.

22 Pragg wins Bucharest Classic
Since Magnus Carlsen has effectively retired from classical chess, there are many potential winners in elite tournaments. Praggnanandhaa is positioning himself as a top contender as he won the SuperBet Chess Classic, just four months after his victory in the Tata Steel Masters.

39 Fair & Square
Jonathan Rowson: ‘In a world that can seem shallow, chess meets a longing for depth.’

40 Esports World Cup
In a move that has sparked curiosity, celebration and perhaps controversy, chess is joining the line-up of the 2025 Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia.

46 The Killer Blow
Puzzles selected by Jacob Aagaard.

48 Chess Sets
With so many types of chess sets available, any player can find the perfect set for their budget and needs. The selection ranges from a deluxe woolly mammoth ivory set to a basic plastic set with weighted pieces.

56 Carlsen, Ivanchuk and Giri
Magnus Carlsen scored a perfect 9/9 in the Grenke Freestyle Open. Peter Heine Nielsen annotates Carlsen’s win against Keymer. Jon Speelman looks at three games from Vasyl Ivanchuk’s remarkable 27-game unbeaten streak, that took him back into the top-100. And Anish Giri presents one of the wins that contributed to his victory in the Sharjah Masters.

71 Free eBook
A Special Gift: Botvinnik’s Best Games as a free eBook for all subscribers to the magazine.

72 James Altucher
‘I took the draw. And won the tournament.’

74 How to Improve
What are the pros and cons of chess variants such as 960 and bughouse?

78 The Model Game
In the classic 1.e4 e5 openings, the Vienna Game is a dangerous weapon.

82 The Scoresheet
Fischer-Andersson, an exhibition game from 1970, played in Siegen.

84 Sadler on Books
A monstrous Keres project of 4,013-pages.

92 Jan Timman
Fridrik Olafsson, who passed away at the age of 90, will live on as the man who turned Iceland into a prominent chess nation.

98 Just Checking
What is Herman Grooten’s favourite city?