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In the heart of Budapest at Judit Polgar's ninth Global Chess Festival 2023, the Hungarian duo, Team Mighty Fox, claimed victory in the festival's invitational triathlon event, bagging $4,000 in prize money in the process.

The winning team, comprised of GM Ferenc Berkes and WIM Zsoka Gaal, scrimmaged through three chess disciplinesPuzzle Battle, tandem chess, and finally, bullet chess, and finished atop the leaderboard ahead of GM David Howell and WFM Alessia Santeramo's Team Crazylandia.

Also running during the two-day celebration of chess were the online #ChessConnectUs Open and Scholastic tournaments, which were won by the 15-year-old FM Syvatoslav Bazakutsa and 13-year-old Will Moorhouse, respectively.

Creative crossovers between IRL and online play are all the vogue in chess right now and Polgar has continued to elevate the entertainment value of the Global Chess Festival with each edition.

In 2023, the Triathlon event took center stage, and with a star-studded lineup, including several of Hungary's top players as well as world-renowned content creators, viewers were in for a spectacle.

Speaking about the format of the triathlon, Polgar said the following: "Well, it was my idea to come up with something that might be very entertaining for chess enthusiasts and chess lovers. So the idea was to have mixed pairs and to have three kinds of chess activities where the players can show their focus, how they make decisions, what their intuition is all about, and how they can play in pairs. So to mix things up and have fun!"

The first segment on the schedule was Puzzle Battle and from these matches, two frontrunners would emerge Team Crazylandia and Team Mighty Fox, who both finished on four points. Individually, the most outstanding performance in the section went to Howell, who won all his battles with scores over 44 and a high score of 46, with only IM Gellert Karacsonyi (42) coming close. Howell was all smiles after each clash.

The English GM's partner Santeramo was unlucky not to put their duo in front after striking out on a score of 29 in her match with Team Maglat's WGM Dana Reizniece-Ozola. With 30 seconds on the clock, Reizniece-Ozola was able to make up the ground between them and finish two puzzles ahead of Santeramo on 31.

Meanwhile, Berkes and Gaal got off to a flying start and both managed to win two of their three Puzzle Battles. For Berkes, accuracy was prioritized over speed and, thanks to this, he was able to clutch up against GM Miguel Illescas by two puzzles.

Despite starting slowly in the Puzzle Battle segment, the tandem chess rounds were a raging success for Illescas and IM Olga Alexandrova, also known as Team DragonChess. After securing a draw with Howell and Santeramo in round one, the duo was unstoppable.

A helpmate against Berkes and Gaal from an equal position followed by a rook blunder by Karacsonyi and Reizniece-Ozola catapulted Team DragonChess into second place on seven points.

Still ahead of them however was Team Mighty Fox, who managed to win their other two games and take a commanding three-point lead over the field. The duo's success could be attributed to their teamwork throughout and their decision to play double-fianchetto systems paid off, particularly in their game against Team Maglat.

The final leg of the triathlon was bullet chess, a fitting sprint to the finish for the four teams. Unsurprisingly, the top seed Howell was the most dominant of the male players, scoring 2.5/3 for his team and only conceding a draw to Berkes (2/3) while Santeramo managed to add just one point to Team Crazylandia's tally.

Alexandrova and Gaal were equally impressive and finished in a tie on 2/3. Due to Berkes and Gaal adding a combined four points to their total, in the bullet segment, Team Mighty Fox's final score sat at 12, spelling a comprehensive victory for the Hungarian team.

In a post-tournament interview with Polgar and Sachdev, Berkes cordially spoke about the naming of their team, stating: "I used to be tricky and I think for sure that Zsoka [Gaal] was a part of this [in reference to the fox]." Berkes went on to suggest that his favorite segment was tandem chess while Gaal gave an alternate response, indicating that she enjoyed bullet chess.

For their efforts, the pair received $4,000 while Team Crazylandia walked away with the $3,000 prize for second place.

Standings - Triathlon

All Games - Tandem/Bullet Segments

On the first day of the Global Chess Festival, two winners were crowned in the #Chessconnectsus online Swiss finals. In the open event, Balakutsa, a familiar name to eagle eyed fans of Chess.com's Junior Speed Chess Championship, won with a perfect 11/11 score having defeated multiple titled players in a clinical fashion.

The road to victory was a little tougher in the scholastic division for Moorhouse and after losing his fifth and sixth rounds, the "Go Magnus Chess Academy" student recovered sensationally with a hack-and-slash 13-move victory over his 1800-rated opponent.

Moorhouse then finished the event with five wins on the fly to assume his rightful place at the top and claim the year of free diamond membership along with a 150 Chessable voucher.

Judit Polgar's Global Chess Festival, now in its ninth edition since starting in 2007, is one of the true highlights of the chess calendar. Held in Budapest, Hungary, and also online, it attracts thousands of chess fans from around the world. The triathlon was the focal point of the event and with a $10,000 prize fund and live coverage provided by Chess.com, the festival is back and bigger than ever.

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(Global Chess Festival 2023): Berkes, Gaal Win Judit Polgar's First ... - Chess.com

The Judit Polgar Global Chess Festival 2023 (JPGCF) is a series of chess events and activities hosted by the legendary GM Judit Polgar. The festival runs across two days, October 14 and 15, with the first day happening live in Hungary and the second day happening online. The festival also features two online tournaments, one open to the public and one invitational.

You can watch the event's live broadcast on Chess.com/TV and on our Twitch and YouTube channels.

The festival is open for anyone to attend. Participating clubs held tournaments to decide who'd play in the #ChessConnectsUs tournament. They could sign up two players for the open and two for the scholastic section, one female and one male in each. The following google sheetlists the qualified players.

The chess Triathlon is the only invitational tournament, with confirmed participation of the following players:

The in-person activities of the JPGCF start on October 14 at 4 a.m. ET/10:00 CEST, while the online #ChessConnectsUs tournament happens on October 14 at 11 a.m.ET/17:00 CEST. The rest of the online portion of the festival starts on October 15 at 4 a.m. ET/10:00 CEST. Check out the full schedule below:

You can check the full schedule of the festival on its official website.

The festival features a series of in-person activities (click here for more details), an online Educational Chess Sumit, and two online tournaments. Below, you can learn more about the two online tournaments:

The Triathlon is an invitational event featuring three segments, each a round-robin. Players are divided into teams of two and earn points according to their results and are later ranked based on their total points.

Puzzle Battle

Tandem Chess

Bullet

Clubs ran tournaments to determine who would play in the #ChessConnectsUs Finals. Clubs could sign up one man and one woman to the Open Finals and one boy and one girl to the Scholastic Finals. The Finals consist of an 11-round Swiss tournament in the 3+2 time control. Standard Swiss tiebreakers apply.

The chess Triathlon counts with a $10,000 prize fund, distributed as follows:

Community members playing in the #ChessConnectsUs tournament can also enjoy the following prizes:

This year, the in-person portion of the JPGCF will happen in Polgar's hometown of Budapest, Hungary. People from all over the world will gather at the breathtaking Hungarian National Gallery to take part in the festival. The online tournaments will be played on Chess.com's servers.

This year's JPGCF is the festival's ninth edition. You can see the highlights of last year's festival in the video below:

Link:
Judit Polgar's Global Chess Festival 2023: All The Information - Chess.com

RIVER HILLS, Wis. A battle between two siblings rages on quietly. A younger sister squares up against the older brother in a game of intellectual mastery with family pride on the line. Even though neither talks, their actions speak loudly.

Hersh Singh and his younger sister Aradh Kaur are in a game of wit and strategy trying to beat the other in chess.

Hersh Singh

The two are chess prodigies attending the University School of Milwaukee in River Hills.

I started with it at a really young age, and liked it, and I improved fast. So I wanted to keep going with it," 17-year-old senior Hersh Singh said.

Hersh is a FIDE Master. That's the third-highest title the international chess governing body can give. The next are international master and grandmaster.

Older brother Hersh Singh is a FIDE Master. Thats the third-highest title the international chess governing body can give. The next are international master and grandmaster. He's one of only a handful in the state to hold the title.

Hersh is a senior at the University School of Milwaukee in River Hills. Hes just 17 and is the 140th-best chess player in the country. Even though Hersh is soft-spoken, he's competitive.

His main focus in chess is, Doing good in prestigious tournaments," he said.

That is a humble way of saying winning. He has won four national titles, gotten 2nd 5 times, and recently got 2nd at the Pan American Chess Festival this past summer to earn his title of FIDE Master.

He practices for anywhere between one and a half to four hours a day. Its a grueling regime, but there is a big goal in mind to become a grandmaster.

His sister, Aradh is also a chess prodigy. When she was 14, she tied for 1st in the Pan-American games and now at 16 she recently won a national tournament in Florida.

James Groh

It started out when my grandfather taught me and it seemed like an interesting game and I kept playing, and I realized I was kind of good at it. So I kept playing, and it was fun," Kaur, a sophomore at the University School of Milwaukee, said.

Like her brother, her favorite part of chess is winning.

But only one can come out on top of a game between these two siblings. While it's not a formally ranked game, the winner gets the title of champion of the house.

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Chess.coms top event for women, the $70,000 Julius Baer Womens Speed Chess Championship, is back next month and this time with a big-name sponsor and six of the strongest players on the planet.

Defending champion GM Kateryna Lagno and the near-legendary GM Hou Yifan, the world number-one for eight years and last years runner-up, have confirmed they will resume their speed chess rivalry.

Both will battle it out in the main event from November 13 to 22, which is supported by the Swiss private bank Julius Baer.

The stellar lineup also includes the highly-decorated GMs Alexandra Kosteniuk and Valentina Gunina. Kosteniuk and Gunina are two of the finest and fastest women players, and both former champions.

Indias GM Harika Dronavalli, the runner up to Hou in 2021, will also return alongside fellow countrywoman IM Vaishali Rameshbabu, the fast-rising 22-year-old from Chennai and sister of the prodigy GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu.

Here's what happened in last year's dramatic final:

Two more spots are available from what promises to be an exciting qualification event, open to all titled women, from November 8 to 9. This year, however, the format for the first stage is slightly different.

The Julius Baer Womens Speed Chess Championship is being brought into line with the Speed Chess Championship and the Junior Speed Chess Championship which means the qualifier will see a 14-round Swiss on day one followed by a top-8 double elimination bracket on the second day.

The winner of each bracket on day two will advance from the qualifier to the main event. Play will begin at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CEST / 18:30 IST on both days.

The main event starting November 13 will see an eight-player single elimination bracket, with seedings determined by a Chess.com panel. The six players listed above have been directly invited, and will be joined by the two qualifiers.

All matches will be played over 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1 time controls. The exact schedule will be confirmed later.

Antje Hembd, Head Global Sponsoring & Partnership Julius Baer, said: We are thrilled to support the Womens Speed Chess Championship for the first time and to help to empower women and create a more equitable, diverse and exciting chess landscape.

"This year Julius Baer has been included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GE). This inclusion shows our commitment to advance to the topic and to share our results transparently supporting our Diversity & Inclusion vision to foster an inclusive environment built on care.

This years Julius Baer Womens Speed Chess Championship is the fifth edition of the event, which has seen a series of thrilling finals since it first burst onto the scene four years ago.

GM Elina Danielian, who reached the main event as a qualifier, won the inaugural WSCC in 2019 defeating Gunina 15-13 in the final. Danielian was dethroned in 2020 by GM Anna Ushenina, who beat Kosteniuk in the final. Hou then took the title in 2021, toppling Dronavalli, before Lagno won it against Hou in 2022.

You can watch the live broadcast on Chess.com/TV or on our YouTube and Twitch channels. Find out more about the 2023 Julius Baer Women's Speed Chess Championship in our event guide here.

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Hou Yifan Out For Revenge Against Lagno In 2023 Julius Baer ... - Chess.com

A hush fell over Kendall Cram Lecture Hall on National Chess Day last Saturday morning, Oct. 14. Kings and queens shuffling across boards replaced the sounds of idle chatter as the 1st Annual Tulane Quick Chess Tournament commenced.

Tulane Chess Club and Downriver Chess Club of New Orleans teamed up to organize their first annual tournament. According to Downriver Chess Clubs co-owner Richard Campbell, this tournament represented 20% of Louisianas top contenders in the United States Chess Federation, with participants from as far as Mobile, Alabama. Tulane Chess Clubs co-president, junior Carter Williams, echoed this success with the 100 participants and additional spectators.

Tulane University Provost Robin Forman observed the tournament. Forman has been playing chess for decades and became a U.S. chess master in 1996.

My time spent at the Tulane chess club has reminded me of the joyful chaos and comradery of in-person chess, with the laughter and the sounds of pieces crashing, the boisterous congratulations and celebrations of victory, the consolations and lessons learned from defeat, all of which is missing from the online games, Forman said in a statement to Tulane Chess Club.

This five-round, USCF-verified tournament welcomed many notable players of different skill levels. Ten-year-old Leo Le-Tran battled against national master senior Nicholas Matta. Matta won second in the tournament behind Tulane Law School student Dexter Webster.

A ten-year-old was one of the best players and beat one of our strong club members, Williams said. Thats how chess goes; chess is known as the great equalizer. You could be a homeless person versus a king and its a completely equal playing field.

The Tulane Chess Club was formed nearly three years ago, following the spike in chesss popularity during quarantine and the subsequent release of the hit show The Queens Gambit.

In my perspective, chess is an art form, director of growth and marketing junior Trevor Johnson said. People look at the game in different ways. Everybody has their own style. People create their own vision and they create a plan and they execute it. Thats what I really love about chess.

The Tulane Chess Club had about 10 members playing in the tournament, all striving to live up to the legacy of Paul Morphy, a Tulane Law alum and unofficial world chess champion, who is still regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.

We feel honored and obligated to live up to his legacy, Johnson said. He revolutionized the game in two years, immediately after graduating from Tulane. While he was here, he worked hard and studied both law and chess and he went on to change the world. I really like that as a metaphor for the overall Tulane spirit. Thats who were here to represent today.

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Good knight for chess: Tulane hosts tournament - Tulane Hullabaloo