Woodward Wins Under 16 ChessKid Youth Championship

Fifteen-year-old GM Andy Woodward won the 2025 Under 16 ChessKid Youth Championship after beating 14-year-old GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus in the Final. It was payback against last year's winner, who eliminated Woodward in the 2024 Semifinals. Woodward earned $3,000, while $2,000 went to the runner-up.

• Final Standings
• Group A: Erdogmus, Materia Qualify
• Group B: Woodward, Oro Qualify
• Knockout: Woodward Wins After Taking A Basketball Break

Knockout Bracket

Just like in the under-13 tournament a month ago, 12 contestants were split into two groups of six, Group A and Group B. After a double round-robin, the top-two players of each group would advance to a knockout bracket. Despite the cap being just three years older, this field was much stronger than the last; every single participant was at least an international master (technically, IM-elect Tani Adewumi met the qualifications and is just waiting for his title to be confirmed).

Every player earned at least $200, with the top prize of $3,000 awarded to Woodward.

Group A: Erdogmus, Materia Qualify

Tiebreaks for Second

Erdogmus was arguably the favorite to win the event, considering he won it last year at the tender age of 13, right when he was a GM-elect. "That's the guy, Mike, I won't be really surprised to break the 2700 Elo in the coming years," said commentator GM Arturs Neiksans in the opening remarks of the show. GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was recently quoted as saying that the youngster is the "biggest candidate to become a world champion" in a post on X.

GM Shreyas Royal had the best chances of anyone against Erdogmus. In their first game, the Turkish star played a dubious knight sacrifice that was too challenging to defend against in blitz, even if the computer laughs at it. If 32...Qg7 or 32...Ng7 were played, it would be interesting to see what Erdogmus would have come up with to continue the attack.

Shreyas had a much bigger chance in their second game, though neither player had any time to think in the scramble. 28.Qe5 would have ended the game on the spot.

IMs Marco Materia and Yu Tian Poh tied in second, both with six points. Materia won both tiebreak games to qualify for the Knockout. That said, Materia could have made his life easier by winning in round 10, when he accepted a draw because he (erroneously) thought it would clinch second place.

Materia said his favorite game of the day was the first, where he gained the initiative starting with 27.e5!. From there, his opponent was pushed back on every move until the passed e-pawn decided the game.

Group B: Woodward, Oro Qualify

Like in the other group, the favorite finished in first—though Woodward won by an even greater margin. He won every single game except for one draw against GM Abhimanyu Mishra in round seven. One of his goals, he said after playing last year, was to play faster.

The two games that stuck out to him the most were against Mishra and Adewumi. Woodward said, "Both of them I was dead lost, but it came down to a time scramble where I just got pretty lucky." Though he was likely talking about his second game against Mishra, the first featured a wild pawn race in the rook endgame, one that the computer usually claims should be a draw, but this is never so clear in a human game. Especially in blitz.

Oro, who had just played an exhibition match against GM Viswanathan Anand last week, finished in second. By scoring six wins out of his first seven games, it didn't even matter that Oro only scored a half-point out of the last three. It was enough for the 11-year-old to qualify.

Knockout: Woodward Wins After Taking A Basketball Break

Semifinals: Erdogmus and Woodward Advance

Erdogmus 3-1 Oro

Erdogmus lost the very first game against Oro, but he struck back and won the next three to close out the match. The last game was, by far, the prettiest, where Erdogmus took about six seconds to play a winning queen sacrifice. Oro took the queen and allowed the forced checkmate:

Woodward 3-0 Materia

Woodward, on the other hand, won all three games against Materia. In game two, he showed that in blitz the objective evaluation isn't the most important factor; instead, it's all about who can create practical threats. Down an exchange, and objectively lost, Woodward managed to win.

Final: Woodward 4-2 Erdogmus

Woodward said that between the Final of the 2025 Chess.com Puzzles Championship against GM Ray Robson and this one, it was this Final against Erdogmus that made him more nervous.

Woodward won the first two games, but then he lost the third just before heading into a break. In a time scramble, he allowed Erdogmus to execute a pretty checkmating attack with three pieces. This could have been a turning point, as Erdogmus won this game and the next.

Woodward later shared, "I was of course a little bit annoyed at myself, but I guess I just tried to get my mind off it by playing some basketball." That's right, he went outside, shot a real basketball into a hoop during the five-minute break, and came back to win the championship.

After Woodward dropped another loss, the score was even at 2-2, but he went on to win the last two games. The last critical moment of the match was Erdogmus' desperate knight sacrifice, 22.Nh5!?—one that is completely unsound but might fluster an opponent with one minute on the clock. Woodward, who only needed a draw, said, "From the start, I wasn't even considering taking the knight," and he went on to reach an equal rook endgame—one where he'd win on time.

That's two titles this year for Woodward, who is also the 2025 Chess.com puzzle champion. As for over-the-board events, he has two scheduled for July: the World Open and then the U.S. Junior Championship. Good luck to Andy at both of them!

The ChessKid Youth Championship is Chess.com's top event for the next generation of the chess elite. The under-16 section took place June 7-8, with two six-player groups where the players competed in a double round-robin. The top two players qualified for the knockout, where the semifinal was best-of-four and the final best-of-six. All games were played with the 3+1 time control and the prize fund was $7,500, with $3,000 for first place.

Previous coverage:

• Aaron Mendes Wins Under 13 ChessKid Youth Championship
• ChessKid Youth Championship To Start May 3 With Strongest Prodigies In The World