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Chess

Illustrative: Competitors sit at their tables during the first round of the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2025 at the Sports and Events Complex at Qatar University in Doha, Qatar, on December 27, 2025. (Mahmud HAMS/AFP)
Israeli chess players say they were barred from world championship in Malaysia
By ToI Staff
Players call for Malaysia to be stripped of tournament, noting exclusion violates guidelines of chess governing body, FIDE; one player says he was omitted despite registering with foreign passport
Judit Polgár speaks onstage during the Sundance premiere of the Netflix documentary film 'Queen of Chess' at the Eccles Theater on January 27, 2026 in Park City, Utah. (Robin Marchant/Getty Images for Netflix/AFP)
July 21, 2026, 12:36 am
Jewish chess legend Judit Polgar declines offer to become Hungary’s president
Day after nomination by Prime Minister Peter Magyar, Polgar says she does not ‘feel I have the strength to take on the historic responsibility of uniting a divided nation’
By AFP and ToI Staff
Judit Polgár attends the 'Queen Of Chess' premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Center Theater on January 27, 2026, in Park City, Utah. (Dia Dipasupil/ Getty Images/ AFP)
July 20, 2026, 6:16 am
Hungarian PM nominates Jewish chess grandmaster Judit Polgar to serve as interim president
Announcing nomination, Peter Magyar says Hungary ‘needs unity, peace and a president whom every Hungarian can be proud of’
By ToI Staff and Reuters
Hungarian-American chess grandmaster Susan Polgar. (Renata Goreczki)
October 25, 2025, 8:06 am
Skewering antisemites and sexists, a chess queen recounts her journey to the top
In new memoir, ‘Rebel Queen,’ Hungarian Jewish grandmaster Susan Polgar details attacking the forces that tried, and failed, to put her in check on the way to becoming a world champion
By Rich Tenorio
US chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky appears in a live-stream, on October 18, 2025. (Screen capture via Daniel Naroditsky on YouTube)
October 21, 2025, 10:02 am
American chess grandmaster and popular streamer Daniel Naroditsky dies at 29
Son of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine and Azerbaijan, prodigy earned highest chess title short of world champion at 18; his livestreams drew thousands, bringing game to new audiences
By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM
A protestor shows her red-tainted hands during a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstration in front of the Israeli Embassy in Madrid, on September 6, 2025. (Thomas COEX / AFP)
September 12, 2025, 8:00 pm
Israelis withdraw from Spanish chess tournament after being barred from using national flag
Club says they asked Israelis not to participate and have achieved their goal; International Chess Federation says it was not consulted on move and condemns discrimination
By Reuters and ToI Staff
Screen capture of the Chess.com website, November 4, 2024. (Times of Israel)
November 4, 2024, 9:32 am
Users claim rampant antisemitism on popular Chess.com application
Dozens of reported intances of players using pictures of swastikas or Hitler, or openly antisemitic usernames, with no action taken by company
By ToI Staff
Melan Halbi, standing, watches her peers compete at the Israeli Chess Federation tournament in Acre, January 2024. (Olga Volkov)
February 10, 2024, 8:04 am
Chess tournament makes mates of Arabs, Jews and Druze amid Gaza war
In late January, the Israeli Open Championship in Acre brought all of Israel’s diverse sectors together to battle it out on the board, fostering community through love of the game
By Diana Bletter
Mitra Hejazipour poses with a chess board in an undated photo (Courtesy/ Mohsen BEZENJANI)
September 16, 2023, 10:07 pm
Chess star who fled Iran after shedding headscarf hails ‘courage’ of protesters
Mitra Hejazipour, who is now living in France after removing head covering at 2019 tournament, wants to use her platform to ‘show Iranian women that they are not alone’
By Valentin GUELET
Iranian chess player Sara Khadem competes without a headscarf at a chess tournament in Almaty, Kazakhstan, December 26, 2022. (Lennart Ootes/FIDE)
January 4, 2023, 2:14 am
Iranian chess player who shunned hijab moves to Spain after reported threats
Source close to Sara Khadem says she was warned to stay away from Iran; Spanish media reports she will settle with husband, child in already owned apartment in undisclosed location
By ToI Staff
Igor Yarmonov and Galina Gurina in their room in a communal flat in Ashdod, December 18, 2022. (Inna Lazareva/Times of Israel)
December 22, 2022, 10:54 am
Disabled world chess champion from Mariupol faces eviction from his Ashdod lodgings
Igor Yarmonov and his wife fled to Israel with the help of chess enthusiasts around the world. Now, with only a week to find new housing, their future is far from certain
By Inna Lazareva
Religious Zionist party head MK Bezalel Smotrich seen after coalition talks at a hotel in Jerusalem on November 30, 2022. (Courtesy Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
December 1, 2022, 1:08 pm
Daily Briefing Dec. 1: Netanyahu tries to rein in Smotrich; chess games reflect life
Knesset correspondent Carrie Keller-Lynn looks at coalition negotiations; investigative and features reporter Inna Lazareva discusses chess as metaphor for global issues
By ToI Staff
China's national chess team hold their trophy after winning the World Team Chess Championship in Jerusalem, November 25, 2022. (Twitter video screenshot: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
November 26, 2022, 7:47 pm
China wins world chess championship in Jerusalem, defeating Uzbekistan
Spain comes in third over India; Israel and US were knocked out before quarter-finals; US chess star Hans Niemann participates amid cheating row
By ToI Staff
Chess grandmaster Hans Niemann plays at the World Team Championship in Jerusalem, November 24, 2022. (Courtesy of FIDE/Mark Livshitz)
November 25, 2022, 9:00 am
‘Show me the evidence’: US captain defends alleged chess cheat Niemann at J’lem meet
As under-fire grandmaster keeps mum at tournament, team captain John Donaldson, who says he’s known the player since he was 10, praises his ‘great talent’ and maturity
By Inna Lazareva
Ilana David, captain of Israel's team at the World Teams Chess Championship, on November 20, 2022, in Jerusalem. (Inna Lazareva/Times of Israel)
November 24, 2022, 3:23 pm
‘Are you here by mistake?’ Meet the 1st Israeli woman to captain a men’s chess team
At the World Team Chess Championship, Ilana David describes her childhood alongside world champion Garry Kasparov, while lamenting the barriers facing women in the sport
By Inna Lazareva
The Ukrainian chess team display some national pride at the World Teams Chess Championship 2022 in Jerusalem. (Courtesy of Oleksandr Sulypa)
November 23, 2022, 6:49 am
Holding Russia in check, Ukrainians look to capture chess glory at Jerusalem tourney
Many of Ukraine’s players in the weeklong World Team Chess Championship come from the front lines or areas hit hard by Putin’s war gambit, and compete with their countrymen in mind
By Inna Lazareva
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