New Year's Eve 2025
Well, this was an interesting year.
I started this on May 25 if anyone's wondering.
My Rosen Score and Chess Wrapped: https://www.chess.com/blog/TheAuthorOfChickens/rosen-score-and-chess-wrapped-2025
2024 blog for those wanting a comparison: https://www.chess.com/blog/TheAuthorOfChickens/new-years-eve-2024
Please keep in mind that the section is for events in general. The highlights are not ment to call anyone out, rather, they are to make note of both major and minor Chess.com and chess related events that happened this year.
Also no, y'all are not getting The Update Chapter 11 today.
Highlights
- I started an interview series called "Behind the Avatar" on May 9. @Deflection was the first to be interviewed and the master list of interviews can be found in the sidebar.
- @Hikaru played an 810 move game against @JustinWang1234 on May 13 in the Late-Titled-Tuesday-Blitz-May-13-2025 tournament. Game link: https://www.chess.com/game/live/141481277957?move=0
- Magnus Carlsen drew by repetition against the world in 960. https://www.chess.com/votechess/game/349245
- Sometime in May/June, OTFDAN broke 1,000 pages and broke the site. For a bit the only way to see new comments was to set the comment order to "Newest" instead of "Oldest". Chess.com staff eventually managed to fix it.
- I finished Rounds 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of my quotes. Round 1 was finished in 2024 but received a couple reposts as things were changed.
- @sailsword got banned for abuse in July. He had previously closed his account before popping up with a new one (@sailsicles) claiming he'd been hacked. I later checked and both accounts had been closed for abuse. Later in August (or late July) his main was re-opened.
- @Agentnoggin got muted in July and from then on used chats to communicate to people. He got banned in August because the mute was for being underage but his parents signed the form and his account was re-opened shortly after.
- @ElDivis won by resignation against the world. https://www.chess.com/votechess/game/369306
- @SweetPeaBuddy and others (@Faith_in_Him might be one of them) (if you have usernames feel free to drop them in the comments) got banned because of a birthday forum in Christian Chess Youth Group, and the club got disabled as well. The reasoning I heard from someone was that Chess.com thought they were stealing information. @F1-24 contacted support about this because CVC also had a birthday forum, and reasons other than the above were also given that I will not be sharing. So I'm not sure if they weren't who they say they are or if they got falsely reported.
- Chess.com had some massive UI changes. They removed followers and notes (views were removed but they added them back later due to complaints) and changed the overall profile page layout. They made the blog sidebar available to all members instead of just people with a membership.
- Chess.com removed the achievements 3D Glasses, Dangerous Intersection, Man vs Machine, Buddy System, Social Butterfly, Second Opinion, Hindsight 20/20, and Statistician due to them being bugged.
- On August 18, @Caleb341 quit the site. He passed on ownership of Chess.com vs. ChessKid, a 7,300+ member club at the time, to me. He stated Qoi is to be the next in line for ownership. A few days after that things kind of settled down. On September 1 I handed ownership over to Qoi, everyone overreacted, and I quit the club because I was tired of the overreactions and being owner. I rejoined the club on September 2. Carlsen gave me admin on September 3 (he got promoted to SA after I left) because Qoi was either fake online or ignoring me. Yeah that was a wild ride. For anyone wondering, my original join date is November 4, 2023.
- Speaking of clubs, I created Author's Flock on January 6 because I got inspired by Admiral's fan club. I asked @B00M3R4NG-N3BUL4 if I should make one and he said yes. Thus a club was born. It was later disabled on September 1.
- @Jared left social in May to focus on work.
- Chess.com made all flairs except those in the Membership, Hosts, Computer, and Pro Chess League categories available for non-premium members. At some point the Duolingo flairs got removed, but I don't know when.
- My tournament that started on November 2, 2023 finally ended on October 7, with @KRAPARSOV in 1st, @Patzerbrause in 2nd, and @nyrtam in 3rd.
- I left Chess.com vs. ChessKid once again on October 9. I later re-joined on October 26.
- @Deflection and @Reflection got mass reported (not because of alt suspicion, at the time Reflection was called @Forsaken), which resulted in their getting muted and @Deflection's main getting banned. Deflection was later re-opened.
- Daniel Naroditsky died on October 19.
- I got mate with the knight puzzle-style on October 24, also finally getting me the Killer Knight achievement. https://www.chess.com/game/live/144681874864
- I hit the 100 blogs milestone on October 28.
- Round 5 of CVC's Hurt/Heal started on November 2, hosted by @Reflection. To the disappointment of all the players, the list was not ordered by number of lives. @BermudanPM blogged the weeks of this game. (Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7)
- On November 21, Forsaken accidentally changed her username to Diva when, if I'm getting this correct (https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/pov-you-cant-read), the idiot support bot didn't register "Cancel this ticket" and ended up getting her username changed. One of her friends changed to Forsaken to save it for her, but later, on November 24, she changed it (with staff's help obviously) to @Reflection. I am adding this to get revenge for my quotes.
- Javokhir Sindarov (@Javokhir_Sindarov05) won the FIDE World Chess Cup 2025. He is the lowest seeded and the youngest (19) to win the cup.
- IM @gm3t won the 2025 Chess.com Daily Chess Championship, with IM @RIPOL in second and @Novik89, IM @Tsubasa, IM and CC staff member @GregShahade, and FM @Leonid_Starozhilov placing third.
- CVC hit 8,000 members.
- Chess.com made it so that you can no longer game review-farm using others' premium. Before, if someone reviewed a game they played against you, you could access that reviewed game as well without using up one of your daily reviews. Now, you can only see games you've reviewed. An explanation @Martin_Stahl gave:
- OTFers started joining CVC, including but not limited to (some may have joined earlier, this is just as general list) @Pitiless, @ARandomHuman45, @Allan0818, @demolishment, @Elin_M, @mishailu, @Mu3icl0ver
- @jcchess245 won the CVC NYE 2025 club giveaway.
- CVC's largest forum hit 16,532 comments and 827 pages.
- OTFDAN hit 311,340 comments and 15,567 pages.
Collection of Daily Puzzles
A collection of the daily puzzle Chess.com released this year.
Leaderboards
Vote Chess
1. Chess School
2. PHILIPPINES' FINEST Chess Club
3. EGYPT CHESS CLUB
4. Chess Champ
5. Chess.com vs. ChessKid
6. THE POWER OF CHESS
Daily Matches
1. TURK CHESS PLAYERS
2. Chess School
3. Team Russia
4. PHILIPPINES' FINEST Chess Club
5. THE POWER OF CHESS
6. Team Romania
Ratings
Bullet - 754
Blitz - 589
Rapid - 727
Daily - 711
Puzzles - 1507
See you in 2026 🫡
