GothamChess & Top Coaches Draft Their Picks For CoachChamps 2025

The teams in CoachChamps 2025 are set for the main event in October. The eight coaches—GMs Arturs Neiksans, Ben Finegold, IMs Levy Rozman, David Pruess, Andras Toth, WGM Dina Belenkaya, CM Can Kabadayi, and NM Robert Ramirez—have each selected four students whom they will have one month to train.

The main event takes place from October 7-10. The Group 1 Round-Robin takes place on October 7, starting at 11:00 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8:30 p.m. IST.

Final Rosters

The inaugural CoachChamps is an event that celebrates some of the world's most popular coaches and most motivated students. Prospective students were members of our Improvers Club and actively participated in the 2025 Chess Improvement Challenge. Anyone could apply, but only 32 made it to the event as students.

While coaches will earn prize money based on results in October, all participating students will win exclusive online coaching sessions with star chess coaches, one year of free Chess.com Diamond membership, and a $100 Chessable voucher. The winner of each round-robin will also win an exclusive piece of signed merch.

There are four rating brackets, and we will review the highlights of how students were chosen in each, as well as thoughts coaches shared as they picked their students.

A common sentiment shared by several of the coaches was that this group is the most unpredictable. Belenkaya said this was her favorite part about this group, while Ramirez added, "They're very easy to mold, and for them it's very easy to see progress... going from 500-600 is very exciting," and it happens much quicker than at the higher levels.

They're very easy to mold, and for them it's very easy to see progress.

—Robert Ramirez

Rozman agreed about the unpredictability, saying: "A lot of it is also random. You have weeks where you go down 100 points, but you're the same person, and then you have a winning streak, like seven or eight games." Neiksans added that this is the group that could show the biggest improvement over the next month—before picking Nabbollini, who also happened to be Toth's first choice. Toth went with his second, Southernrun.

Pruess said that this group is still drilling down the basics: "Generally at this level they're working on their tactics and maybe their opening principles still," such as developing their pieces and putting them on safe squares. Pruess didn't reveal why he went with JakesActaully, but enigmatically said, "If I figured out this player correctly, I think they'll be good at the 10 minute time control."

Kabadayi, who went with Moonzzs, optimistically said that this was "a strong candidate that was missed by others." As the fifth in line, he pointed out that NBA player Charles Barkley was a fifth overall pick that surprised others.

In the next group, Finegold went first. He said, "I want somebody who's played a lot of games and done a lot of puzzles," and by these criteria he went with B_Chris11 because he'd played the most games.

Rozman, the second, picked someone who was clearly his fan, qqq1m, saying, "They are obviously very good, they have a 1600 blitz rating, and also because they are in the Gotham fan club."

Pruess said he was looking for "somebody who's enthusiastic about chess, somebody who's likely to put in quite a bit of time over the course of this month." He also said that having a big, glaring weakness is a good thing in this context, explaining that it means you know exactly what to work on. Pruess chose kashcarbon. Kabadayi wanted the same player but went with his second pick, P1ngu7.

Toth chose clingermanchess "because my scouts told me that he was the one based on the list that I assembled... I hope we'll figure out how the horsie hops and moves around the board."

I hope we'll figure out how the horsie hops.

—Andras Toth

Neiksans was pleased to take Bangladeshi player SMTariqulIslam because their time zones matched up well. He spoke at several points about how important this is, so that the coach and student can meet conveniently and often.

Belenkaya, though she was the last to go, was looking forward to working with her student, a member of the Waco Chess Club in Arlington, which she shouted out.

Chess gets quite serious in the next two rating bands. Rozman commented about players at this level, "You either realize you're going to be stuck at 1500-1600 for the rest of your life [or you will improve]... but, you know, this is CoachChamps and everybody here is super motivated to get better."

... this is CoachChamps and everybody here is super motivated to get better.

—Levy Rozman

Belenkaya said that this group has a lot of potential and agreed with Rozman, saying, "Either you lost all motivation or you understood you are really here for the grind." Of all four groups, she said she thinks this group will show the most improvement.

Funnily, Neiksans wanted to go with emilyplayschess, but changed his mind when he saw Belenkaya's glaring reaction. He went with dq_555 instead, not to ruffle any feathers.  

But, a few turns later, Finegold chose emilyplayschess after all, saying, "Go emily, somebody I know!" Although Belenkaya was disappointed not to work with her friend, on her turn she said, "To be honest I think it will actually be to her benefit to hear from somebody else." But to keep the fire going, Belenkaya chose frank, who was going to be Rozman's choice.

Rozman said it was "devastating" not to work with frank, whom he trained in PogChamps, and instead went with thelearnerofgames. Curiously, Toth went with house_of_pancakes... because, well, he likes pancakes!

About the highest rating band, Pruess said, "It takes a lot of work to make progress at this level, so maybe now we need to look more for something fixable... or for somebody who's very psychologically tough."

Neiksans added, "This is also the group where the players are playing more bullet... we don't really know how they're going to perform with the time control." He also pointed out that "The favorites are a bit more clearer than in the other groups," as it gets much harder to improve the higher you go.

Ramirez, with the first pick, went with vtom, saying, "He knows his openings, he has a very good understanding of chess throughout and he seems to be active. That's going to count."

Toth chose asmoada, saying, "She has had some very massive climbs lately, so I am looking forward to seeing how far we can go together."

Rozman had a tough choice between three players that all appealed to him: jj0268, masky_chess, as well as Olzhek. He went with masky_chess, who was also Belenkaya's first pick. She drafted phoebewitte instead, who celebrated her birthday on this day. 

The rest of the players took their pick and Kabadayi was left with Logando2805, though he was just as positive as anybody else. He said about this happenstance pairing: "Let's call this destiny."

Tune in at the start of October to see who the best coaches and students are, after all! Tell us in the comments below: who do you think will win?

CoachChamps 2025 is Chess.com's tournament to find out who's the best chess coach in the world. Any community member can participate in CoachChamps, but eight star coaches draft students on September 10. They then have until October 6 to help their student improve. Round-robins for each rating band go from October 7-10. The time control is 10+2 and the prize fund is $25,000; coaches earn prizes, while students win exclusive online coaching sessions, one year of free Diamond membership, and a $100 Chessable voucher. The winner of each round-robin will also win an exclusive piece of signed merch.

Previous coverage:

• Announcing CoachChamps, Chess.com's First Tournament For Coaches And Chess Improvers