$1,500,000 Tournament Headlines Upcoming Chess Action

As the second half of 2025 begins, there is a lot going on at Chess.com, as always. But what is new is chess at the Esports World Cup, where $1,500,000 will be up for grabs starting on July 29. This past month also saw exciting events, a new half-opponent, half-mentor you can play on Chess.com, some great content, and much more.

Here's what this update covers: 

• Events
• Product & Engineering
• Community
• Content
• Chessable
• ChessKid
• Fair Play
• Support

Events

• GM Alireza Firouzja won the 2025 Bullet Chess Championship , his second straight title, after defeating GM Oleksandr Bortnyk in the Grand Final.
• The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Las Vegas runs July 16-20. The field includes GM Magnus Carlsen, GM Hikaru Nakamura, and June 20 qualifier winner GM Hans Niemann.
• The Esports World Cup is almost here! The last EWC qualifier happens July 24-26 to determine the final four spots alongside Carlsen, Nakamura, GMs Ian Nepomniachtchi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Arjun Erigaisi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Vladislav Artemiev, Alireza Firouzja, Vladimir Fedoseev, Fabiano Caruana, and Wei Yi, and the $1,500,000 main event begins July 29. 
• GM David Howell won 3-1 in the latest edition of Kids vs. Stars.
• IM Carissa Yip won the Cairns Cup, one of the strongest women's tournaments in the world, as she works her way toward the grandmaster title. Now, the Women's World Cup is now underway, and runs until July 29.
• The Chess.com Community Championships continued in June with GM Andrew Tang winning the Hyperbullet Championship. Up in July: Bughouse!
• IM Irakli Beradze and GM Andrey Stukopin guided Symetra Financial to victory in the North American Corporate Chess League.

Product & Engineering

• We went back millions of years to find new dinosaur bots for you this month. (You may not have to fear the T-Rex and those short little arms as much as you think!)
• We also announced Play Coach, a whole new way to play bots, geared toward helping you improve as you play.

If you are in tech and would like to join our team, we're hiring!

Community

• International Chess Day is coming on July 20! Chess.com has partnered with Portals, a viral art and technology project, to bring together the chess communities in four cities around the world for an interactive game of chess that straddles the line between over-the-board and online.
• New Orleans Saints defensive back Justin Reid repeated as BlitzChamps champion in the fourth edition of the NFL charity chess tournament.
• WFM Anna Cramling and her mother, GM Pia Cramling, are currently touring the United States, creating content and meeting fans.
• To make the most of the ongoing Chess Improvement Challenge, join the club today and check out the club forum, too! Every month, we will recognize the top improvers and share improvement stories.

Content

• Everyone loves luring their opponent into a false sense of security and then striking a chess trap. In this video, top grandmasters share their first traps. 

• From early traps to tactical brilliance, we also asked some GMs to solve some of the internet's favorite tough puzzles.

• If you ever wondered how many people where you live play chess, or how chess players are spread geographically throughout the world, you may want to check out our article exploring where chess is the most popular.
• The FIDE Circuit can be one of the more confusing parts of the world championship process. Tai Pruce-Zimmerman makes sense of it in his  FIDE Circuit review featuring current leader GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu.

Chessable

• Chessable announced the 2025 Research Awards winners! These annual awards go to graduate and undergraduate students conducting ongoing or new chess research under the guidance of a faculty research sponsor. Congratulations to Sara Cavaglia, Jim Yang, Gerrit Hourigan, and Kevin Yang!
• Among new Chessable courses this month, GM Erwin l'Ami is back with the first part of his 1.d4 Lifetime Repertoire.

ChessKid 

• Did you know that ChessKid has its own unique video content? It's always both fun and educational. Below you can check out the ChessKid take on the shortest games ever with narrator FM Mike Klein:

Fair Play

Fair Play Stats for June

• 1,082,690 reports created
• 118,996 Fair Play closures (including 25 titled players: 3 IM, 5 FM, 7 CM, 2 WIM, 2 WCM, 6 NM)
• 8,700+ mute actions
• 8,100+ accounts muted
• 231,100+ abuse closures
• 51,419,086 rating points refunded

Support

• Median Time to First Human Response: 1 day, 5 hours
• Users Helped: 25,505
• Average Quality by Member Rating: 93.2% (new record!)
• Total Ratings: 4,868

Thank you for being part of the world's largest chess community. Let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comments below!

Missed any updates? Open the menu below for all past editions of the Community Update, or find last month's here.