7/4/2025 – On 28 June, over 330 girls gathered for a remarkable chess event at Kenya's Kakuma Refugee Camp, marking a powerful moment of in-person connection through the FIDE Girls Club. Usually held online, the club offers weekly training and support to girls in the camp as part of FIDE's Chess for Protection project. The day featured motivational talks, friendly matches and generous donations, highlighting chess as a tool for resilience, inclusion and empowerment.

6/2/2025 – The new FIDE rankings are out. Magnus Carlsen and Hou Yifan continue to lead the open and women’s lists, while world champion Gukesh remains the top junior despite Elo losses. The month also brought shifts just behind the leaders, with strong performances from rising stars and established players alike.

4/15/2025 – On 4 April, Iceland's first grandmaster Fridrik Olafsson passed away. Olafsson had celebrated his 90th birthday in January. After ending his career as a professional chess player, he became a lawyer and eventually became FIDE President. FIDE published Olafsson's last interview, in which he talks about computers, his chess career and his friendship with Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, among other things.

3/28/2025 – Beauty prizes at chess tournaments are great. But there have always been disputes about which game in a tournament deserves this prize. For example, Kateryna Lagno (pictured) felt unjustly ignored when the award was presented at the Women's Grand Prix in Monaco 2025 and has now protested in an open letter. Thorsten Cmiel reports on this dispute, which has political dimensions. | Photo: Niki Riga / FIDE

3/28/2025 – FIDE has launched the Open Chess Museum, an online platform providing free access to a vast archive of chess history as part of its centenary celebrations. Featuring rare artifacts, historical documents, and personal items from top players, the museum offers a comprehensive look at the evolution of the game. Organised into thematic sections, it includes a timeline of chess history, FIDE's institutional development and biographies of world champions. The initiative invites global contributions, ensuring a continuously expanding digital repository.

2/4/2025 – FIDE published the new world rankings at the beginning of February, but they are no longer completely up-to-date, as the tournament in Wijk aan Zee could not be considered. Carlsen remains number one, but Caruana, who is ranked second in the FIDE world rankings, fell to fourth place in the live ratings list. Hou Yifan remains number one among the women; the best junior is still Gukesh Dommaraju, followed by Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu; and with Divya Deshmukh the best junior among the women also comes from India.

1/29/2025 – The dispute between FIDE and Freestyle Chess continues. After Jan Henric Buettner attacked FIDE in an interview with Norwegian broadcaster NRK, Buettner has now published an open letter to FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky. In this letter he addresses the development of the conflict, and concludes by saying: "Freestyle seeks peace, not conflict. We are still willing to contribute $50,000 annually to ensure the players are left undisturbed." Sutovsky was quick to respond, sharing his view of the conflict on X/Twitter, although he did not comment on Buettner's offer. | Picture: Pixabay

1/22/2025 – After the Freestyle Chess Organisation had set up a series of freestyle tournaments, the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, FIDE sought contact and asked for possibilities of cooperation. However, the FIDE representatives seemed primarily interested in payments to the World Chess Federation. Negotiations dragged on, and after a recent statement by FIDE and a video by Hikaru Nakamura, the tone of the debate became more controversial.

1/21/2025 – Freestyle Chess is an alternative to standard chess involving a number of top players. As the best tournament of its kind, the Freestyle Grand Slam has the status of a world championship, but FIDE reserves the right to this brand name, as it emphasised in a statement today. At the end of the year there were already some differences between the parties involved on this issue.

1/2/2025 – Just in time for the start of the new year, FIDE has published the new world rankings. With an Elo rating of 2831, Magnus Carlsen remains the clear number one, followed in second, third and fourth place by Fabiano Caruana (2803), Hikaru Nakamura (2802) and Arjun Erigaisi (2801). Gukesh Dommaraju, the new classical world champion, follows in fifth place with 2777 points, but is the highest-rated junior (under 20) in the world.

12/2/2024 – Arjun Erigaisi is now officially another player over 2800 behind Carlsen, Caruana and Nakamura in the December FIDE world rankings. Four Chinese players continue to lead the women's ranking and Gukesh D, the world's best junior might soon also be World Champion. Bibisara Assaubayeva is the world's best female junior.

10/1/2024 – The new FIDE World Ranking is out, reflecting the results of the Chess Olympiad in Budapest. Magnus Carlsen remains the world number one, ahead of Hikaru Nakamura in second place. But Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi, who scored 10.0/11 in Budapest, is the new world number three, although only one point ahead of Fabiano Caruana in fourth. World Champion Challenger Gukesh, who also won big in Budapest, is fifth and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, another top scorer at the Olympiad, is sixth.