The Next Youth Movement In Chess Is Here
As 17-year-old GM Gukesh Dommaraju prepares for the FIDE World Championship in November, this month 10-year-old IM Faustino Oro and nine-year-old CM Ethan Pang set records while and nine-year-old WCM Bodhana Sivanandan made England's Olympiad team!
Of course, this month isn't all about the amazing talents born this millennium. This July, we go back... way back.
Here's what this update covers:
Product & Engineering
Have you ever wanted to do battle with the larger-than-life ancient rulers of the Roman Empire? This month you have your chance!
- This months bots are Roman emperors (and a queen)... which you can play with an all-new piece set. Featuring Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Hadrian, and more!
- Hotkeys were brought to Chess.com Analysis, for those of you who like to make the most out of our top tools.
For our power users, we now have hotkeys available in Analysis!
— Chess.com Support (@chesscomsupport) June 20, 2024
To see the list of available hotkeys, simply press "SHIFT+D" to pull up the hotkeys modal. pic.twitter.com/43Gm0DljI4
- Stay tuned next month as we continue to improve our product for your chess satisfaction and enjoyment.
If you are in tech and would like to join our team, we're hiring!
Events
The Bullet Chess Championship wrapped up, the Speed Chess Championship field was set, and GM Magnus Carlsen continued his recent domination of the Norway Chess tournament.
- GM Alireza Firouzja won the Bullet Chess Championship with a dramatic Grand Final sweep on June 13.
- GM Denis Lazavik earned the final spot in the 2024 Speed Chess Championship by winning the play-in on June 28.
- The Main Event of the SCC begins on July 25, so mark your calendars!
- Norway Chess was won by Carlsen for the fifth time in six years, while GM Ju Wenjun won the women's tournament, and its equal first place prize of roughly $50,000 USD.
- The 13-year-old GM-elect Yagiz Erdogmus continued his ascent in the chess ranks with a big Bullet Brawl victory to wrap up the month on June 29, while Titled Cup now enters a big second half in July. Who will win all of the many individual prizes available in the Titled Cup?
Community
Chess.com was in both Vegas and the Netherlands simultaneously on June 29! How did we do it? And why were we there?
- Chess.com was at UFCX in Las Vegas on June 28-29—read all about it here!
- We were also at TwitchCon in Rotterdam on June 29!
Chess at TwitchCon was a lot of fun ♟️🤩 Loved playing irl games! 🫶🏻 Btw, this #chess set is absolutely amazing 😱 @chesscom 💚 pic.twitter.com/TuvLhKF22M
— Lile Koridze (@KoridzeLile) July 1, 2024
- Chess.com's Askild Bryn and CM Odin Blikra Vea entered the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ books for the longest chess marathon, in a battle of endurance and wit—and even more endurance—that eventually clocked in at a whopping 61 hours, three minutes, and 34 seconds!
- The Chess960 event of the Community Championships were held on June 20-21. Congratulations to winner GM Vladimir Fedoseev!
Content
If the day-to-day life of the competitive chess world our community events didn't keep you busy enough, maybe you caught our videos and articles?
- If someone showed you a game from several years ago, would you recognize it? What if they weren't all your games? And what if all the pieces were replaced by checkers? Well, GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Magnus Carlsen, and Viswanathan Anand found out the answer for themselves ahead of the Casablanca Chess event.
- Hikaru, Magnus, and Vishy also tier-listed several meme openings from brilliant to blunder, with... varying degrees of leniency.
- For the Bullet Chess Championship, we asked—and answered!—several burning questions, such as, What Can A Grandmaster Do With 60 Seconds?
- And, How Fast Are The Best Bullet Players?
Chessable
Chessable continues to release some of the very best instructional chess content you can find anywhere. And who knows, maybe even you will be a Chessable author someday soon! How? Read on...
- Magnus Carlsen's longtime coach, GM Peter Heine Nielsen, presents GM Mauricio Flores' course, Chess Structures: A Grandmaster's Guide!
- The Create Your Own Course contest will be accepting registrations all the way until October. Get yours together for a chance at a $5,000 advance on course sales!
ChessKid
As we mentioned at the jump, it was a huge month for ChessKid and its prodigious ambassadors.
- Erdogmus won both the under-13 and under-16 events in the ChessKid Youth Championships!
- ChessKid Ambassador Faustino Oro became youngest international master in chess history, while Ethan Pang is now the youngest 2200-rated player ever! Congrats Fausti and Ethan!
- Longtime ChessKid ambassador IM Shreyas Royal reached a 2500 rating. Congrats Shreyas!
- Bodhana made England's Women's Olympiad team, the youngest ever so chosen in national history. Congrats Bodhana!
- Kids vs. Stars 2 is coming up July 16 on the heels of a successful first edition.
- ChessKid was also on site in at ChessFest in London on the weekend of July 5-7.
Fair Play
The Fair Play team is always hard at work to keep Chess.com a safe and fair place to play for everyone in the community.
Fair Play stats for June:
- 331,859 reports created
- 59,329 Fair Play closures (including 9 titled players: 1 IM, 1 WIM, 3 FM, 1 CM, 1 WCM, 2 NM)
- 43,000+ mute actions
- 38,000+ accounts muted
- 136,100+ abuse closures
- 23,200,000+ rating points refunded
Support
The team has integrated AI into their work, making the first-response time immediate, while still following up with human action as soon as possible.
- Average Time to First Human Response: 1 day, 17 hours
- Total Number of Conversations: 84,766
- Average Quality by Member Rating: 90.6%
- Total Ratings: 4,106
Thank you for being part of the world's largest chess community. Let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comments below!
Missed an update? You'll find last month's edition here.
