Incredible Chess Photos Of 2025

The year 2025 was an incredible one for the chess world. Fortunately, chess photographers were on hand to capture all the action. Do you remember these significant moments?

Carlsen Beams With 3rd-Place Prize

Can you imagine GM Magnus Carlsen being satisfied with finishing in third place in a chess tournament? Perhaps a check for $100,000 is what brought a smile to his face. At the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Las Vegas in July, GM Levon Aronian was crowned the winner, and GM Hans Niemann finished in second. Both outdistanced Carlsen who had been relegated to the event’s lower bracket after his underwhelming group stage performance. Nevertheless, observe his smile.

Losing Is Lonely

Have you blundered a major piece in a game that you were winning—and then had to face the cold reality of the loss alone? In a semifinal match of the 2025 FIDE World Cup in November, GM Andrey Esipenko had a winning advantage against GM Wei Yi. Then the unthinkable happened: Esipenko forgot his rook was under attack. After hanging the rook, he resigned the game before his next move, and he kept sitting at the board in isolation long after Wei had left.

Pain Of Losing

The pain of losing was also visually compelling at round 13 of the 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters in February. In his first event after becoming world champion, GM Gukesh Dommaraju was tied with GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu for first place with a blitz playoff next to determine the winner. Praggnanandhaa lost the first game but then won twice to win the prestigious title. The pain of losing is so evident in Gukesh’s body language.

Lucky Horse

The last Friday in May was a rest day for the players at Norway Chess 2025. The theme of the day was an afternoon in the country. At Westernbyen, a Western-themed village just outside Stavanger, players participated in several rodeo-themed contests. GM Fabiano Caruana had a real horse rather than a knight. Perhaps the horse (see thumbnail photo above) brought him luck because he finished in second just a half-point behind the winner, Carlsen. The other players also enjoyed the rodeo-style activities.

Underwater Chess

Chess is played around the world in many formats and time controls—however, is playing under water logical? Freestyle chess was the format in South Africa in December. Before the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals began, a “diving chess” competition was held that was billed as the first underwater freestyle competition. Players made their moves on a small chess set placed 110 centimeters deep on the bottom of a hotel’s pool. After making a move, a player could come out of the water to catch his breath; the opponent had to dive instantly and make their move. Niemann was proclaimed the Diving Chess Cape Town 2025 Champion.

Intense Concentration

How intensely do you concentrate on the chessboard during a game? Analyze the facial expression of Gukesh as he plays Carlsen during round one of the Norway Chess 2025. Despite the intense concentration, Gukesh lost the game to Carlsen, which was their first classical game since Gukesh had won the world championship title.

Longest Chess Marathon

What began on April 17 and ended on April 20? During those days, a new Guinness World Record was set for the longest chess marathon. Tunde Onakoya and NM Shawn Martinez played continuously for 64 hours in New York's Times Square to set the record. "We stopped at 64 hours because it's the total number of squares on the chessboard," Onakoya said. The marathon was organized by The Gift of Chess, a nonprofit that plans to donate one million chess sets around the world by 2030.

Wedding Vows Sealed With A Kiss

The first significant event—or maybe the most romantic one—in 2025 for the chess world may have been the wedding of Carlsen and his bride Victoria Ella Malone. Because she had been appearing more frequently at tournaments where Carlsen was playing, the wedding in January at Holmenkollen Chapel in Oslo was highly anticipated.

Ivanchuk Returns To Top 100

In April, GM Vasyl Ivanchuk, at age 56, won the 4th Menorca Open, his first major tournament victory since 2019. With an unbeaten score of 8/9, his 2833 performance at the event returned him to the world's top-100 players. One of the greatest players in the last three decades, he was once ranked as high as world number-two.

Youngest Player To Defeat World Champion

In round five of the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss in September, 16-year-old GM Abhimanyu Mishra became the youngest player to defeat a reigning world champion in a game of classical chess. That success shows how fast he has been rising as a chess star. When he was 12 years and five months old, he set the record as the youngest player to become a grandmaster. Because Mishra’s win against Gukesh is so phenomenal, it is included below (annotations by GM Rafael Leitao) with a photo that shows how late stages of the game were attracting several spectators.

In addition to these photos, Chess.com has selected seven photos for you to consider as the best of the year in its annual awards program. (They are not included above.) Have you voted yet? Make sure you do before the opportunity ends. Voting closes on December 31, so don't miss the opportunity to participate and win a prize. Read about the awards program here, submit your votes, and help celebrate the best of 2025!  

In addition, you can compare the 2025 photos to the ones that I thought represented the best in 2024.

Are there any other moments in 2025 that you think are particularly photogenic?