A Month Of Celebrations, Murder Mysteries, And More
March's monthly update is here; it's time to catch up on everything that happened in February and get a preview of all the March madness heading your way.
Unleash your inner detective with a murder mystery, celebrate International Women's Day with a special event for all Chess.com members, and find out why some of the chess world's biggest names spent a weekend having pies thrown at their faces and water guns aimed at them.
Here's what this update covers:
Product & Engineering
The chess vs. checkers debate has finally been settled with an all-new chess variant, and there are plenty of new bots for you to challenge.
- It's murder on the chessboard! Can you crack the case by defeating this month's Murder Mystery bots? Who took out the Green Pawn, and can you bring them to justice?
- Speaking of checkered pasts, there's a new variant in town: Chess With Checkers. Would you be able to remember which piece is which if they all looked the same? It's time to find out.
- To mark Women's History Month, you can challenge some of the greatest ever women to play the game. Good luck taking on GMs like Judit Polgar and Hou Yifan. You'll need it!
- The team took advantage of an extra-long February to add 6,913 new puzzles, for a total of 835,147 unique playable problems.
If you are in tech and would like to join our team, we're hiring!
Events
February saw some brilliant performances and the start of a brand-new event: Team Chess Battle.
- Last month we asked: "Can anyone stop GM Magnus Carlsen?" The Norwegian GM replied by winning the 2024 Chessable Masters after an early scare against GM Alireza Firouzja.
- Carlsen took home the top prize, but the best game and most brilliant move of the tournament didn't belong to him; check out five things we learned from the 2024 Chessable Masters.
- GM Hikaru Nakamura had a record-breaking performance as he shattered the Bullet Brawl record with an otherworldly 82.5/84 score. That's 82 wins, one draw, and one loss.
- Team Chess Battle has seen stars of the game pair up to defeat their opponents (and talk plenty of trash while doing it); GMs Fabiano Caruana and Christian Chirila will face GMs Robert Hess and Daniel Naroditsky in the final!
- In exciting collab news: Chess.com sponsored the 2024 Chess.com Invitational, the first tournament of the 2024 Disc Golf Pro Tour season, with Magnus Carlsen and the ChessBrahs among the big names on-site at the event.
Community
Like competing in community events, or even just watching them? March has plenty to offer.
- On International Women's Day (March 8), we're hosting a special arena tournament and roundtable discussion featuring some of the leading women's voices in the game.
- NM Jalen Wang took home the Variants Community Series (VCS) Crazyhouse Championship. The next cycle starts on March 7, with Atomic Chess.
- Opening Roulette returns in March, with the Caro-Kann as the star of the show. Join this unrated community event every Monday to improve your game and win prizes!
- When you play other community members on Chess.com, you might be playing some famous athletes! SlugChamps and BlitzChamps were both held in February, with multi-talented athletes flexing their chess muscles.
Content
Catch up on some of our favorite stories from the last month below.
- February was Black History Month, and Detroit legend NM John Brooks and 'Brooklyn Castle' star Rochelle Ballantyne were among those who shared their thought and stories with us.
- Another story we loved was the fateful pairing of two Chess.com members, who met online as random chess opponents and blundered their way into a brilliant romance.
- The longest undefeated streak, the highest Elo rating ever recorded, the longest consecutive reign as world #1... check out some of Magnus Carlsen's top records in this deep-dive.
Chessable
Try some free chess lessons by a grandmaster, and find out who won the latest edition of the annual Chessable Awards.
- GM Jan Gustafsson is bringing the aggression with a feisty 1.e4 repertoire that goes straight for the knockout blow. Learn sharp lines that challenge your opponent right from the opening and check out the free 'Short & Sweet' preview here.
- The winners of the 2023 Chessable Awards have been announced, with GM Fabiano Caruana, IM Alex Banzea, and IM Levy Rozman among the big winners. Check out the full list and get some inspiration for your next chess course.
ChessKid
The ChessKid National Festival wrapped up, and ChessKid's top superstars keep making waves in the chess world with their amazing achievements.
- The first-ever ChessKid National Festival was an amazing success, with hundreds of kids enjoying the action and making memories that will last a lifetime.
- Chess-fencing, GothamChess playing a 'Super Soaker Challenge' simul (pictured above), and FM Mike Klein having a pie thrown at his face were among some of the weekend's highlights.
- ChessKid star FM Tani Adewumi earned his final IM norm at the age of 13, bringing him one step closer to achieving the title of International Master!
- Another amazing young ChessKid, WCM Bodhana Sivanandan, has become the 3rd-highest rated player aged 8 and under of all time at the 2024 Cambridge International Open.
Fair Play
If we find that someone cheated against you during an online chess game, any Elo points you lost as a result will be refunded by our team.
Last month, the Fair Play squad refunded over 22 million rating points to their rightful owners!
Fair Play stats for February:
- 336.4K reports created
- 57K Fair Play closures (including 8 titled players; 2 CMs, 4 FMs, 1 IM, 1 WCM)
- 73.1K mute actions
- 64.2K accounts muted
- 134K abuse closures
- 22,785,172 rating points refunded
Support
Questions? Problems? The Support Team is here to help.
- Average Time to First Response: 1 day, 20 hours
- Total Requests Received: 86,836
- Average Quality by Member Rating: 95%
- Total Ratings: 6,264
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.
