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India’s D Gukesh became the youngest winner of the FIDE Candidates tournament after an exciting final round on Monday in Toronto. India’s D Gukesh became the youngest winner of the FIDE Candidates tournament after an exciting final round on Monday in Toronto. Gukesh held fellow title contender Hikaru Nakamura to a draw with black pieces in Round 14 to ensure his title win and become the second Indian to qualify for a World Championship final in the classical format, after Viswanathan Anand. The 17-year-old has now qualified for the World Championship final, where he is slated to face China’s Ding...

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iranian chess player arrived in Spain on Tuesday after receiving what a source close to her said were warnings not to return to Iran for competing without a hijab at an international tournament in Kazakhstan. Sara Khadem, born in 1997, took part in last week's FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in Almaty without the hijab - a headscarf mandatory under Iran's strict dress codes. The source, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Khadem subsequently received multiple phone calls in which individuals warned her against returning...

FIDE Website.Magnus, the two-time defending champion, has the world's top rating in the classical-timeframe format at 2855, while Nepo is fifth-rated at 2782. In their previous classical games prior to this match, Nepo is ahead 4-1. The match is 14 classical games in Dubai. A win counts as 1 point and a draw as 1/2. Each player has two hours for his first 40 moves and one added hour for his next 20.

"Grace is not a reward for faith; faith is the result of grace." - John Blanchard "Saving faith is not a native product of the human heart, but is a spiritual grace communicated from on High." - A.W. Pink, http://bit.ly/drXWnO "It is not faith that saves, but faith in Jesus Christ.... It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not int he act of faith or the attitude of faith or in the nature of faith, but in the object of faith." - B. B. Warfield...

MOSCOW — A Russian MP has asked an eccentric regional leader to explain his behaviour after claiming on state television that he was visited at home by aliens in a UFO, media reported Thursday. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, head of the Buddhist Kalmykia region of southern Russia and president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), announced without apparent irony on a high-profile chat show he had met the aliens in 1997. In an equally bizarre twist, Andrei Lebedev, an MP for the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, has now written to President Dmitry Medvedev raising fears that secret information could have been disclosed...

Many Protestants today realize that Catholics adhere to two of the important "solas" related to salvation sola gratia (by grace alone) and solo Christo (by Christ alone) but fewer are aware that Catholics can also accept the formula of justification sola fide (by faith alone), provided this phrase is properly understood. The term pistis is used in the Bible in a number of different senses, ranging from intellectual belief (Romans 14:22, 23, James 2:19), to assurance (Acts 17:31), and even to trustworthiness or reliability (Romans 3:3, Titus 2:10). Of key importance is Galatians 5:6, which refers to faith working...

FIDE PRESS RELEASE FIDE – International Chess Federation - Vice President held in custody by Spanish Police, after being heavily beaten up FIDE Vice President and European Chess Champion 2003, Grand Master Zurab Azmaiparashvili is being held in custody by the Spanish police at a federal police station in Palmanova, Mallorca, without charges after a serious incident where he was severely beaten up by security guards towards the end of the Closing Ceremony of the 36th Chess Olympiad in Calvia on October 30th 2004. As the Chess Olympiad Closing ceremony came to an end, a special prize bearing the name...

The final game of the epic Man vs Machine match between Garry Kasparov and Deep Junior ended today in a 3-3 tie. With millions of TV viewers watching Kasparov came out fighting, but with the black pieces he was unable to gain enough to secure a clear win. A full report and pictures will follow. Here's the game. Game 6(Link not available yet.)