Big Events And Big Developments This Month At Chess.com

Last month, several big matches were just starting, especially GM Magnus Carlsen against the world, and GM Ju Wenjun and Tan Zhongyi's impending fight for the Women's World Championship. One of these is still going and the other has been decided, so we have updates on that, and there is so much more going on this month as well—from additional events to Courses to bots to the ChessKid Youth Championships. Read all about that and more in the May 2025 Chess.com update.

Here's what this update covers: 

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

Events

• The Chess.com Classic is back! The second and final event of the 2025 Champions Chess Tour, which runs from May 18 to May 23, will help determine who makes the Esports World Cup in July. 
• GM Magnus Carlsen (who else) won the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Paris, the second invitational tournament of this year's Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, on April 14.
• GM Ju Wenjun defended her throne, defeating GM Tan Zhongyi in the 2025 Women's World Championship on April 16.
• Competition for the next Women's World Championship continues as well, with GM Humpy Koneru winning the Pune edition of the Women's Grand Prix.
• PogChamps returned! Premier League footballer Ebere Eze won the sixth rendition on May 2.
• This past month's Community Championships came in the 4 Player Chess variant, with Luis Ignacio winning the title. May brings the King of the Hill, as voted by you!
• Carlsen continues to lead the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix, which ends on May 27! Eight players qualify for the Speed Chess Championship and eight more for the Women's Speed Chess Championship.

Product & Engineering

• This month's bots are Heist-themed—play them today!

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

Community

• WNBA Champion and chess aficionado Aerial Powers, along with FM James Canty and others, held a chess workshop in Columbus, Ohio, on April 17. 

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A post shared by Aerial Powers (@aerial_powers23)

• Magnus Carlsen's game versus The World continues! Not only that, but we announced a limited edition Magnus clothing line—check it out!
• IM Levy "GothamChess" Rozman is on tour in May, and if you'd like to buy tickets or read about who else will be appearing with Levy, follow this link! 
• Chess.com will be at the DreamHack Dallas convention with $20,000 on the line from May 23 to 25!
• 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

• Were you able to take advantage of Life Review? This new feature was announced on... April 1.

• PogChamps wasn't just one of the big events of the month. Were you able to take our PogChamps 6 quiz?

• As part of our ongoing Improvers' campaign, WGM Dina Belenkaya had a ton of great advice on how to deal with losing chess games.

Chessable

Chessable and Chess.com are more integrated than ever before, as Courses have come to Chess.com! Much of what you love about Chessable, including its signature MoveTrainer technology, is now on Chess.com Courses as well.

Everyone can try Courses for free with 10 free lessons per month, while Diamond members can try unlimited courses. Everyone will also get a free course on their dashboard based on their level. Diamond members also get a 20% discount on any paid course and access to more than 300 Short & Sweet courses.

ChessKid 

• The ChessKid Youth Championship is underway! On May 4, GM Aaron Mendes became the under-13 champion—tune in on June 7-8 for the under-16 group!
• WFM Megan Paragua reached an Elo rating of 2300, the sixth youngest woman to ever do so. 
• Last month, we covered IM Tani Adewumi becoming an international master. Now, you can read Tani's interview with FM Mike Klein!
• ChessKid will be in Orlando, Florida, for the first-ever official National Puzzle Championship on May 8. Follow the link for details.

Fair Play

Fair Play Stats for April:

• 1,128,147 reports created
• 116,651 Fair Play closures (including 17 titled players: 2 GM, 3 IM, 1 WGM, 4 FM, 4 CM, 1 WFM, 1 WCM, 1 NM)
• 8,900+ mute actions
• 8,200+ accounts muted
• 218,000+ abuse closures
• 53,155,187 rating points refunded

Support

• Median Time to First Human Response: 1 day, 11 hours
• Users Helped: 23,557
• Average Quality by Member Rating: 91.5%
• Total Ratings: 4,128

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.