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• 06 December: The 2006 World Chess Challenge, played between Russian Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik, eight weeks thither the winner of a match to determine the absolute world champion, and the multi-processor computer chess engine Deep Fritz concludes at the Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Bonn, Germany; Deep Fritz earns two wins and four draws across the six-game match to win the meeting, which reprises an eight-tie match styled as the Brains in Bahrain and comprising two wins for either player and four draws, played between the two in 2002, 4-2.
• 13 October: The Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) world championship, played between Russian Grandmaster (GM) Vladimir Kramnik, by virtue of his 2000 victory over GM Garry Kasparov styled as the classical world champion, and Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov, the world's highest-rated player and, by virtue of his 2005 victory in a double round-robin tournament contested by many of the world's top players, styled as the FIDE world champion, to unify the world chess championship concludes in Elista, Kalmykia, Russia, as Kramnik, upon the match's concluding with each player's having scored six points across twelve games, earns two-and-one-half points across four rapid tiebreak games, winning the ultimate game with the white pieces to earn the absolute title. The match is postponed after its fifth game in which Topalov, theretofore trailing Kramnik, 3-1, is awarded a forfeit victory by the chief arbiter when Kramnik does not present himself to play in view of a FIDE appeals committee's sustaining a complaint essayed by Topalov as to Kramnik's frequent restroom visits, which visits are subsequently suggested by the Topalovian side as indicative of the use of the Fritz 9 computer engine program, and thereupon devolving revised regulations as to restroom use; upon the intervention of FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the match resumes with a sixth game. The eleven games played over-the-board at classical time controls comprise six draws, three victories by Kramnik, and two victories by Topalov; each game begins with a move of the queen's pawn (d4) as only two principal openings—the Slav Defense and the Catalan Opening—are employed. Kramnik qualifies to contest the 2007 world championship, in which seven other players, of whom three—Indian GM Viswanathan Anand and Russian GMs Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich—are automatically qualified and may avoid candidates' play, will participate, whilst Topalov is eliminated from the 2007 cycle.
• 21 September: The 2006 Norwegian national championship concludes as Grandmasters (GMs) Magnus Carlsen and Simen Agdestein, having ten weeks thither finished in equal first in a Swiss system tournament played in Moss, Østfold, having over nine rounds scored seven points, one-half more than GM Berge Østenstad, seven times a national titlist, contest a two-game playoff under classical time control and, having drawn the classical games, a two-game rapid playoff; Carlsen, in 2005 the loser of a playoff against Agdestein, himself a seven-time champion and formerly Carlsen's trainer, wins both games to claim his first national title.
• 08 September: In a tournament contested by four of the world's top fifteen players by Elo rating, including Indian Grandmaster (GM) Viswanathan Anand, seven times the winner of the speed chess division of the Melody Amber tournament and the the 2003 world speed chess champion, Russian GMs Alexander Grischuk and Peter Svidler finish the Fédération Internationale des Échecs World Blitz Championship, played in Rishon LeZion, Israel, having each scored ten-and-one-half points over the fifteen all-play-all rounds, play an armageddon tiebreaker in which Svidler, having recorded a superior Sonnenborn-Berger score, plays the black pieces with draw odds; Grischuk wins in sixty-three moves to claim the world title. Anand and Azerbijani GM Teimour Radjabov share third place with ten points—Radjabov is placed third in view of his superior tiebreak score—whilst Hungarian GM Judit Polgar and Israeli GM Boris Gelfand finish one full point behind Svidler and Grischuk to garner equal fifth; of the six players to have advanced from a Swiss system qualification event Israeli GM Sergey Erenburg posts the best score, tallying seven points to finish in equal ninth.

For other chess news, see 2006 in sports, current sports events, and the Wikinews sports portal.