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Thanks for posting, Brendan.
I hadn't been a fan of that streamer, but the excerpt you linked to was highly reasonable and I enjoyed it.

I'm sad about the Naroditsky developments and don't want to comment. It all affected me strongly.

I understand completely Geeker, that's why I just put up the link.

On a more cheerful note, this site publishes an interesting study / puzzle every day.
They're not easy, but the interface lets you hammer out solutions by trial and error.
The current one (Troitsky) is funny...hint: White mates in four.

https://chessmood.com/daily-puzzle

Brendan, you might appreciate super-GM Alireza Firouzja's remembrance of Naroditsky. I only saw it this morning.

https://tinyurl.com/2s3jcfyj

Thanks Geeker, much appreciated.

The "Pogchamps", a polarizing speed chess tournament for Internet celebrity streamers, kicks off today. It's on chess.com.

I'm not watching this year because the lineup of celebrities doesn't appeal.

Last year was interesting because of the athletes, Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik and footballer Eberechi Eze. Eze won the whole thing!

Guardian 29,917 (Serenos - new setter?)
12 across Revolutionary's taking ammunition round: very brief opportunity to finish off king here (6,5)

SERENOS set twice last year so I think this is their third outing in the Guardian.

Rumoured to be an established setter.

There’s a known setter (Jeremy Mutch) who sets with similar names/anagrams… ORENSO in the FT and EL SORENSO in the DT.

With the FIDE Candidates tournament starting this weekend, can anyone suggest a good place to tune-in online?
And who do you think will prevail?

Depends on the commentators you prefer.

My favo(u)rite lead commentators are (in alphabetical order) Jan Gustafsson, David Howell, Alojzije Jankovic, Peter Leko, Evgenij Miroshnichenko ("Miro") and Peter Svidler.

I expect the official FIDE broadcast to include Jankovic or Miro. Although I am not a fan of FIDE I often follow their broadcasts via their Youtube channel. I'll find the link by Googling "2026 FIDE Candidates live" or some such.

There may be a chess24 broadcast on their youtube channel, which I hope will include Jan G and Peter S. Link can be found by Googling.

Chess.com will probably have more than one broadcast: a "Pro" stream with more hard chess analysis (I'm hoping for Leko here) and a "Community" stream with more explanation (probably with David Howell). I like chess.com coverage, but have trended to FIDE or chess24 because chess.com often erratically hiccups, maybe due to server overload. You can find links by clicking on "Events" at the chess.com site. They probably have a youtube channel as well.

Chessbase India if you root for "Pragg". I don't know so much about them, but the presenters are extremely enthusiastic. Samir Shah will likely be involved.

If you have a preference for the (usually female) sidekick/2nd commentator, the main ones are Keti Tsatsalashvili (probably on FIDE), Jovanka Houska (probably on chess.com Community) and Tania Sachdev (probably on chess.com Pro). They're all pretty good.

The above is English language only!

I don't have a serious prediction for the tournament itself. No strong preference, but will pull for Wei Yi to an extent. Also Esipenko and Bluebaum, because I like underdogs. If forced to make a prediction, I'd go for the young Sindarov, who has been on a major up trend.