We Could Have A New World Champion, While A Former Champ Takes On 100,000 Opponents
GM Ju Wenjun has been the women's world champion since 2018, and this month she is once again defending her title. The holder of the open world championship has changed hands twice in that time, first after GM Magnus Carlsen gave it up in 2023. Now, Carlsen has his sights set even higher: instead of beating one person in a match, he's trying to beat 100,000.
Read about their efforts, and about everything else going on in and around Chess.com in this month's community update.
Here's what this update covers:
Events
- The 2025 Women's World Championship between Ju Wenjun and GM Tan Zhongyi is underway! Will Ju hold her title yet again, or will Tan usurp the throne and become world champion for the second time?
- GM Hikaru Nakamura and IM Alice Lee were the winners of the American Cup and Women's American Cup that wrapped up on March 23.
- Competition for the next Women's World Championship is also well underway, with GM Anna Muzychuk winning the Cyprus edition of the Women's Grand Prix.
- The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Paris, the second tournament of this year's Freestyle Chess tour, happens from April 7 to April 14. On March 14, GM Vidit Gujrathi won the play-in on Chess.com to become the final participant in this month's tournament. Will GM Vincent Keymer defend his Weissenhaus victory from February, or will someone else emerge?
- After a few years off, PogChamps is back! The sixth rendition, which will take place over a single weekend, begins April 29.
- The Spring 2025 Collegiate Chess League is a wrap, with Saint Louis University winning convincingly over the University of Missouri in a rematch of the Fall 2024 finals.
- This past month's Community Championships came in the Atomic Chess variant, with Liam Hereford winning the title. April brings the 4-Player Chess Championship.
- Nakamura continues to lead the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix , which runs through the end of May. Eight players qualify for the Speed Chess Championship and eight more for the Women's Speed Chess Championship.
Product & Engineering
- The Realtime Chess Network is hosting almost all games on Chess.com now, bringing smoother gameplay and more stable connections to 94% of our players and growing.
- How are you celebrating Earth Day on April 22? You don't have to wait until then to play our April bots!
If you are in tech and would like to join our team, we're hiring!
Community
- GM Magnus Carlsen's game versus The World is underway! Magnus began the Chess960 match against 100,000 other players with 1.e4.
- IM Levy "GothamChess" Rozman will be on tour in May, and if you'd like to buy tickets or read about who else will be appearing with Levy, follow this link!
- Levy, IM Danny Rensch, WFM Alexandra Botez, and others discussed the future of chess at the annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference on March 7.
- The decade-long North American Corporate Chess League will be hosted by Chess.com for the first time this year. It starts May 1.
- To make the most of the ongoing Chess Improvement Challenge, join the club today and check out the club forum, too! Every month, we will recognize the top improvers and share improvement stories.
Content
- Over on YouTube, GM Levon Aronian answered some burning questions from internet searchers; Hikaru and GM Fabiano Caruana were quizzed on each other's background; and Hikaru and Magnus discussed online comments from... some interesting social media accounts.
- Subjects of articles this month that you don't want to miss include a world record, how to annotate games to help yourself improve, and effective strategies to solve the Chess.com Daily Puzzle.
Chessable
- 2024 Chess.com Author of the Year CM Can Kabadayi has a brand-new course that can help any chess player—avoiding blunders! Can is also the Chess.com Coach of the Month for April, with an interview you can read here.
- The latest edition of Chessable's ever-popular Lifetime Repertoires (LTR) series is here, with GM S.P. Sethuraman offering his approach to the Modern Defense. There have now been 100 LTR courses on Chessable; here's to the next 100!
ChessKid
- IM Tani Adewumi earned his international master title, putting him one step away from grandmaster. Congrats to Tani, who we're sure will be a GM in no time!
- The chess legend and education promoter Judit Polgar now has a playable bot on ChessKid!
- ChessKid now has boys and girls clubs for any kid who wants to have fun and improve their skills!
- ChessKid will be in Orlando, Florida for the National Puzzle Championship on May 8. Follow the link for details.
Fair Play
Fair Play Stats for March:
- 691,714 reports created
- 107,728 Fair Play closures (including 12 titled players: three CMs, one NM, four FMs, two IMs, and two GMs)
- 12,100+ mute actions
- 11,200+ accounts muted
- 199,400+ abuse closures
- 45,872,040 rating points refunded
Support
- Average Time to First Human Response: 3 days 2 hours
- Total Number of Conversations: 28,607
- Average Quality by Member Rating: 90.2%
- Total Ratings: 4,336
Thank you for being part of the world's largest chess community. Let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comments below!
Missed any updates? Open the menu below for all past editions of the Community Update, or find last month's here.
