Last updated: Tuesday 1st April 2025 1:16 pm

The Week in Chess 1586 of 31st March 2025 by Mark Crowther. 24 stories and 6872 games. Links down the right hand margin for games in PGN or Chessbase format or on the The Week in Chess Download page.
A compilation of the games can be had for a donation of £30. There have been over 4 million games in TWIC since the first edition on 17th September 1994.

25th European Women's Championship 2025

25th European Women's Championship 2025 Games and Results

Mark Crowther (Mon Mar 31 16:54:00 2025)

The 25th European Women's Championship takes place in Rhodes, Greece, Mon 31st Mar to Sat 12th Apr 2025. Leading players: Nino Batsiashvili, Teodora Injac, Meri Arabidze, Stavroula Tsolakidou etc. Read more ....

25th European Women's Championship 2025 (Rhodes GRE)
Sun 30th Mar 2025 - Sat 12th Apr 2025 - Official Site

25th ch-EUR Indiv w 2025 (11 Rds Swiss Indiv TC:90m:30m+30spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Games | Live

25th European Individual Championship 2025

25th European Individual Championship 2025 Games and Results

Mark Crowther (Sun Mar 30 12:52:00 2025)

The 25th European Individual Championship took place Sat 15th to Wed 26th Mar 2025 in Eforie Nord, Romania. Matthias Bluebaum won the title on tie-break from Frederick Svane and Maxim Rodshtein. Bluebaum is the first player to win the event twice having won previously in 2022. Read more ....

25th European Individual Championship 2025 (Eforie Nord ROU)
Sat 15th Mar 2025 - Wed 26th Mar 2025 - Official Site - Results

25th ch-EUR Indiv 2025 (11 Rds Swiss Indiv TC:90m:30m+30spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Games

Nicosia FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2025

Nicosia FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2025 Games and Results

Mark Crowther (Mon Mar 24 19:12:00 2025)

The Nicosia FIDE Women's Grand Prix took place Sat 15th to Mon 24th Mar 2025. Goryachkina, Anna and Mariya Muzychuk, Zhu Jiner, Dzagnidze, Dronavalli, Divya, Tsolakidou, Badelka and Paehtz. Anna Muzychuk edged out Jiner Zhu on tie-break after both scored 6/9. Read more ....

Nicosia FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2025 (Nicosia CYP)
Sat 15th Mar 2025 - Mon 24th Mar 2025 - Official Site

Nikosia WGP 2025 (10 players 9 Rds SRR Indiv TC:90m:30m+30spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Games

American Cup 2025

Mark Crowther (Sun Mar 23 21:06:00 2025)

The American Cup took place Sat 15th Mar to Mon 24th Mar 2025. Double Elimination event with open and women's sections. Hikaru Nakamura beat Fabiano Caruana both in the winners final and the grand final to win the event. Similarly Alice Lee beat Tatev Abrahamyan twice in the two women's finals so a grand final reset was not required. Hikaru Nakamura won the blitz on the final day, Read more ....

American Cup 2025 (Saint Louis USA)
Sat 15th Mar 2025 - Mon 24th Mar 2025 - Official Site

American Cup Champ (8 players 4 Rds DEKO Indiv TC:90m+30spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Games Champ

American Cup Elim (7 players 4 Rds DEKO Indiv TC:15m+10spm) - Games in PGN: Games Elim

American Cup Champ w (8 players 5 Rds DEKO Indiv TC:90m+30spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Games Champ w

American Cup Elim w (7 players 4 Rds DEKO Indiv TC:15m+10spm) - Games in PGN: Games Elim w

American Cup Blitz 2025 (9 Rds Swiss Indiv TC:3m+2spm) - Games in PGN: Games Blitz

Champions Showdown The Kings 2025

Champions Showdown The Kings 2025 Games and Results

Mark Crowther (Thu Mar 6 21:39:00 2025)

The Champions Showdown The Kings was a three day event where 6 players play three matches of three games at different time controls, one blitz 3m+2spm, one rapid 15m+10spm and finally one fast classical 60m+15spm. The players earned so much money per game depending on the result. Fabiano Caruana won the most with $51,625. Read more ....

Champions Showdown The Kings 2025 (Saint Louis USA)
Tue 4th Mar 2025 - Thu 6th Mar 2025 - Official Site

Champions Showdown Kings (6 players 3 Rds Match Indiv ) - Games in PGN: Games

7th Prague International Chess Festival

7th Prague International Chess Festival Games and Results

Mark Crowther (Fri Feb 28 21:10:00 2025)

The 7th Prague International Chess Festival takes place Wed 26th Feb to Fri 7th Mar 2025. The main event is the Masters with Chithambaram VR. Aravindh, R Praggnanandhaa, Vincent Keymer, David Navara, Le Quang Liem, Anish Giri, Sam Shankland, Thai Dai Van Nguyen, Ediz Gurel and Wei Yi. The Challengers is also very strong and there's a Futures group and a number of opens. Read more ....

7th Prague International Chess Festival 2025 (Prague CZE)
Wed 26th Feb 2025 - Fri 7th Mar 2025 - Official Site - Results - Live

7th Prague Masters 2025 (10 players 9 Rds SRR Indiv TC:90m:30m+30spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Games Masters

7th Prague Challengers (10 players 9 Rds SRR Indiv TC:90m:30m+30spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Games Challengers

7th Prague Futures (10 players 9 Rds SRR Indiv TC:90m:30m+30spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Games Futures

Prague Int Open 2025 (9 Rds Swiss Indiv TC:90m:30m+30spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Games Open

Boris Spassky 1937-2025

Mark Crowther (Thu Feb 27 19:50:00 2025)

Petrosian losing his title to Spassy in 1969. | https://www.theweekinchess.com

Boris Vasilievich Spassky was born in Leningrad January 30th 1937 and has died in Moscow February 27th 2025 at the age of 88. The former World Chess Champion played two championship matches against Tigran Petrosian, winning the second one in 1969 to become the 10th holder of the title. Spassky lost his only defence against Bobby Fischer in a match in Reykjavik in 1972.

This match gave him worldwide fame in the midst of a media frenzy at the height of the Cold War. Spassky was one of the leading players in the world from 1956 until the early 1980s. In 1992 he played Bobby Fischer in a rematch in Yugoslavia which briefly made them both famous again. In September 2010 he had a serious stroke, most of this obituary was written at that time, it does seem that he eventually made a near full recovery. Spassky had problems with his personal circumstances around this time which concluded with him moving from France, where he had lived for many years, back to Russia where he remained for the rest of his life.

Spassky was regarded as one of the best players ever, a universal player who was especially good at attacking play. His loss to Karpov and a gradual fall in motivation affected his standing in all time lists but at his best his games were really fantastic and place him right up there with the very greatest of players.