Chess
The Contract Without a Player: Fan Data and the Invisible Transfer WindowOn the night of July 15, 2026, in a small apartment on Petrogradskaya Avenue ...
The Game With No Moves: The Void Pakistan Left in SamarkandOn the afternoon of September 15, 2026, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, a chess clo...
The Vacant Chess Throne and the Indian Wave: A Power Map in MotionSt. Petersburg, one October evening. Outside, the Neva is beginning to freeze...
When the Data Sheet Is Blank: Sportswriting and the Temptation to Fill the Void with Memory5:40 a.m. in Binh Duong, the flat still dark, the coffee still hot. I opened ...
Pakistan boycotts Israel match at the 2026 Chess Olympiad: a game with no moves and an unpriced costIn Samarkand, on the opening day of the 46th World Chess Olympiad, a match wa...
Samarkand 2026: Four Boards, One Generation, and the Empty StandsBudapest, September 2026. When the clock on the final board stopped, a...
Chess Olympiad: Gukesh to play on board 4 for India; Humpy leads women's teamWhen a seventeen-year-old prodigy does not yet know he is about to become a...
The Samarkand Torch and Three Names That Need VerificationWhen the 2026 Chess Olympiad torch was placed in Javokhir Sindarov's hands in...
Samarkand 2026: When World Champions Are Left Standing Outside the DoorThe convoy stopped in front of the Silk Road by Minyoun hotel in Samarkand...
Divya Deshmukh, R. Vaishali and an Unsampleable Claim: When a Coach Says His Players Are 'Stronger Than When They Won the Olympiad'One sentence, nine words, and an entire collective belief packed inside it:...
The 2026 Chess Olympiad Torch Has Reached Samarkand — And Three Lines on a Screen Still Need VerificationI was sitting in the fourth row, left of centre, exactly where the television...
Vaishali and Divya Deshmukh: Behind a Coach's AssertionThe Indian women's chess team entered the Olympiad as defending champions. At...
Samarkand 2026: The Reigning Olympiad Champions and the Night Without Rooms Before Round 1Five hours. That is the entire distance between the moment the Indian chess...
Chess Olympiad 2026 in Samarkand: When India Must Beat Itself to Keep the Double CrownI still remember that night in Budapest. Not because of the score — but becau...
Chess Olympiad 2026: Samarkand, 11 Rounds and India's Double GambleIn the autumn of Budapest 2026, I sat before a screen at two in the morning...
After the Olympiad gold: Divya Deshmukh, Vaishali and the claim they are 'stronger than themselves'In a chess tournament hall, the loudest sound is sometimes just breathing. No...
