A host of prodigies and rising chess stars are set to take part in the 2026 edition of the FIDE World Team Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship in Hong Kong this June. While some have already made their mark in international events, for many emerging talents, the Hong Kong event will be a chance to make their mark on a global chess stage.
FIDE and ISCF declared 2026 the Year of Chess in Education, with a focus on integrating chess into school curricula and supporting student development. Hong Kong will be a live version of that idea, where young players who grew up through schools, clubs, academies, and online training now compete on the same stage as chess grandees such as Carlsen, Anand, Ding Liren, Hou Yifan, and Ju Wenjun.
In his address to the Hong Kong China Chess Federation, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich spoke about more youth and school chess, more rated local tournaments, and Hong Kong’s wider ambition as an Asian chess hub. For a city aiming to strengthen its chess culture, the fast-paced World Team Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship is a chance to link Hong Kong with the next generation of Asian and world chess players.
Hong Kong is also the right city to showcase the shift of chess energy towards Asia. In recent years, India, Uzbekistan, China, and Kazakhstan have all won major medals and trophies, often led by young players. The fourth edition of the WRB Teams will test that strength again.
Many of the players taking part in this year’s event – although in their early 20s – are already known to the wider chess world (Praggnanandhaa R, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Javokhir Sindarov, Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin, and Raunak Sadhwani, to name a few). But this is not a story of “genius children”; rather, it is about the painstaking hard work, training system, coaches, and competition from an early age that each player aiming for the top has to pass. Hong Kong is one of those arenas where young stars will test themselves against the best, as one of the fastest team events on the planet becomes a classroom without walls.
Here are some of the young players to watch in Hong Kong:
Faustino Oro (born in 2013)
