FIDE

That is a very good question.

So in chess, I got discouraged by the FIDE rating, basically.

So I had a national rating, which was quite high.

Well, quite high.

And I was doing a bunch of, well, yeah, 2100, 2200 performances.

But it was on 61 minutes, no increment.

uh knockout uh yeah flat we could say yeah uh flat time control and i was really doing those and um then the feedage changed the rules and started adding a new feed rating so i got a one of you know there's um you needed three games at least to get uh i can't say how I don't know how they call it in English, but it was one performance would count for your FIDE rating.

And I had one who was like three years old.

And people say like, oh, well, if they had just, you know, agreed to his demands, then he would have played.

So it's like, you know, Fide pushed him out and it's, it's, it's hard to say whether he really wanted to play, you know, like, um, maybe the demands were an excuse to, to, to not defend this title to say like, oh, well, you know, they're unfair to me.

So I, you know, I stick to my principles, you know, I, I can't play.

And his whole life was really this battle between adhering to his principles and, you know, not cutting off his nose to spite his face, you know? Yeah.

It's always a great event.

Total World Chess Championship, another World Chess Championship, and I think that's recognized by FIDE, so it will have some, let's say, official weight, the pilot.

It's the pilot.

Okay, yeah.

ah okay so it's like you show up you make some money

you make some good money you make you perhaps get like a non-official title and then

It's like the FIDE World Champions, right? 10, 20 years down the road, we'll be like, okay, Magnus won in 2032 and Sundar won in 2037.

But in 2026, do we count that guy?

great.

When I won the U.S. Championship with Paul Sainis, then this certificate showing I was nominated in 2021 as the best first coach of the year because, you know, first coach of Lebanon, I got the prize from the FIDE as the best scholastic coach, technically, something like that.

I mean,

yeah, I mean, many things here.

So, you know, what that story illustrates, the natural genius of this great man is something, you know, non-chess players don't realize because they just see this well-behaved gentleman.

And these days, he's just got elected the vice president of FIDE.

So, you know, he almost looks Sarkari sometimes, like, you know, senior corporate person, just chilling out.

But like, oh, my God, this guy was, you know, the Viv Richards of chess in a sense, if you look at the playing style, just mind blowing.

doesn't work.

In chess, when you become an international player, you get international ratings, which is called FIDE, FIDE ratings, right? It starts from somewhere around 1400 points.

And if you're above 2000 points, which is very, very rare, you're considered to be a genius at chess.

When I had the student from Singapore who had about 1400 odd points and he was about 10 years old and the parents were very excited that you know our child has the potential look he's only 10 and he's got 1400 points and now since we're you know looking at A-League universities in US we want him to build on his rating so that you know his chances of admission become better and And I especially went on hiring teachers for that particular child to make sure I give him the best, you know.

Help Aishwarya to open up, to feel confident enough to ask questions if she doesn't understand something.

Ask questions if she feels she's right and the teacher is suggesting another move.

Back to her going to intermediate level, appearing for state level in Malaysia, appearing for FIDE tournament.

And throughout this journey of two years, till the time she reached Commonwealth, we kept changing her trainers as and when her need changed, her demand changed, her competitive level changed.

With no perfect score left, the bounty rises to $5,500 for next week.

Two things from FIDE.

First, the Russian Rapid and Blitz Championships in Sochi are unrecognized for now.

FIDE has asked its Constitutional Commission whether tournaments played inside Russia during the Chess Federation of Russia's suspension can be raided, a spokesperson told World Chess.

Daniil Dubov won both individual titles.

A women's team from occupied Donetsk played the team events over a Ukrainian protest.

The Russian Federation has been suspended since June 10, 2026, for failing to comply with a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling.

The spokesperson told World Chess, FIDE ratings are updated at the end of each month.