13-Year-Old Beats Nakamura But Favorites Thrive As Blitz Begins
GM Hikaru Nakamura scored 6/7 as top-seed WR Chess won all 12 of their matches on day one of the 2025 World Blitz Team Championship, but the most memorable game was the world number-two's one loss, to 13-year-old IM Khagan Ahmad from Azerbaijan. The other top teams also cruised on a day when the task was simply to finish in the top four of their groups to qualify for Sunday's 16-player knockout for the title.
Day five, the last of the event, starts Sunday, June 15, at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CEST / 6:30 p.m. IST.
In 2024 the World Blitz Team Championship was played on a single day with a seven-round pool stage followed by a 16-team knockout. In 2025, it's spread over two days, with the same system but 13 rounds in the pool stage, which has been given its own full day.
That meant seven hours in which the top teams had a simple task—to finish in the top four of their pool and qualify for the Knockout. Unsurprisingly, the star players racked up big scores, with GM Anish Giri, for instance, scoring 10/11 (10 wins and one loss, to GM Sam Sevian). He gained 13.1 rating points.
Long day on the farm 🧑🌾
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) June 14, 2025
There were four pools of 13-14 teams, so let's take a look at them in turn.
Pool A: WR Chess Dominate
| Rank | Team | Matches | + | = | - | MP | BP |
| 1 | WR Chess Team | 12 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 60 |
| 2 | Ashdod Elit Chess Club | 12 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 21 | 56.5 |
| 3 | Knight Dance | 12 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 19 | 49 |
| 4 | FIDE MB Team | 12 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 17 | 44.5 |
| 5 | Turkish Airlines Sports Club | 12 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 42 |
| 6 | ¡Ållez-Y Initiative! | 12 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 14 | 34 |
| 7 | Global Ramblers | 12 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 13 | 42 |
| 8 | The MongolZ | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 39.5 |
| 9 | ChessbrahTV | 12 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 29.5 |
| 10 | Chess Trust Accelerators | 12 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 6 | 22 |
| 11 | Satranc Istanbul | 12 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 3 | 16 |
| 12 | xChess.AI | 12 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 18 |
| 13 | Berlin Lasker Legends | 12 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 2 | 15 |
Favorites WR Chess missed out on a medal in Rapid and will be hoping to make up for that in Blitz. Their qualification for the final day was all-but-flawless, with 12/12 match wins, including four 6-0 clean sweeps. GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, who was unable to play in the Rapid because of a late arrival in London, scored an unbeaten 9.5/11 on top board, but he had a lot of competition for the best result. GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave scored 7.5/8, GM Wesley So 9.5/10, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda 11.5/12, while GM Alexandra Kosteniuk had a perfect 6/6.
That didn't mean it was all a walk in the park, however. In round five, a young team that would miss out on knockout qualification pushed WR Chess all the way.
11-year-old IM Faustino Oro needs no introduction, with the young Argentine star correctly sacrificing a bishop against Nepomniachtchi.
Nepomniachtchi, however, calmly steered the game toward a draw.
Oro, who scored 7.5/12 for the day, is planning to become world champion in 2032!
"I will become a world champion maybe in..."
— Take Take Take (@TakeTakeTakeApp) June 14, 2025
Interview with 🇦🇷 Faustino Oro. pic.twitter.com/wbZswm3FbK
On board two, meanwhile, 13-year-old Ahmad actually managed to beat Nakamura!
🇦🇿 13-year old IM Ahmad Khagan (2290) stuns 🇺🇸 GM Hikaru Nakamura (2837) in Round 5 of the FIDE World Blitz Team Championship! 🔥#FIDERapidBlitzTeams pic.twitter.com/95l6qmnsW8
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) June 14, 2025
That's our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao has analyzed below.
Nakamura also recapped the day's action.
WR Chess will be joined in the knockout stages by Ashdod Elit Chess Club (GM Nihal Sarin on top board), Knight Dance (GM Jules Moussard), and FIDE MB Board (GM Andrew Hong).
Pool B: Freedom, Hexamind Neck-And-Neck
| Rank | Team | Matches | + | = | - | MP | GP |
| 1 | Freedom | 12 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 22 | 62 |
| 2 | Hexamind Chess Team | 12 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 22 | 57 |
| 3 | Theme International Trading | 12 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 19 | 46 |
| 4 | Malcolm's Mates | 12 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 18 | 55 |
| 5 | Wood Green | 12 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 15 | 39.5 |
| 6 | Rishon LeZion Chess Club | 12 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 41 |
| 7 | Sharks 4NCL | 12 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 13 | 33.5 |
| 8 | Mother Continent | 12 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 32.5 |
| 9 | Sassy Seniors | 12 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 9 | 29 |
| 10 | UK Chess Challenge Masters | 12 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 22 |
| 11 | Hammersmith Chess Club | 12 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 20 |
| 12 | Oxbridge | 12 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 4 | 22.5 |
| 13 | Desert Penguins | 12 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 8 |
The teams that took silver and bronze in Rapid unsurprisingly topped this group, both scoring 11 wins and one defeat. For Hexamind that loss was to Freedom, with GMs Giri, Vidit Gujrathi, and Leinier Dominguez all suffering their only loss of the day.
One player who deserves a mention is nine-year-old "recreational player" Sabartho Mani, who scored an unbeaten 11/12, increasing his already 2014 blitz rating (the cut-off to be eligible as <2000 was in March) by 97.6 rating points!
Freedom's one defeat came to Theme International Trading, led by GM Jose Martinez, while Malcolm's Mates (GM Michael Adams) took the fourth spot.
Pool C: Uzbekistan, Germany, And The Prodigies
| Rank | Team | Matches | + | = | - | MP | GP |
| 1 | Uzbekistan | 12 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 58 |
| 2 | Germany and Friends | 12 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 22 | 55 |
| 3 | Rookies | 12 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 20 | 51 |
| 4 | Generation XYZA | 12 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 17 | 52.5 |
| 5 | Duobeniajan Costa Calida ESJ | 12 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 15 | 46.5 |
| 6 | Mongolia-B | 12 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 15 | 41 |
| 7 | Wood Green Youth | 12 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 31 |
| 8 | e-therapeutics | 12 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 9 | 29.5 |
| 9 | Berlin Chess Federation | 12 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 20.5 |
| 10 | ANI | 12 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 19.5 |
| 11 | OlalaStars | 12 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 21.5 |
| 12 | Chess Rising Stars | 12 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 3 | 23.5 |
| 13 | Youth KG | 12 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 2 | 18.5 |
Uzbekistan was another team that only just missed out on medals in rapid chess, and they hit back to score a perfect 12 match wins in the blitz qualification, including a 4.5-1.5 victory over second-placed Germany and Friends. That featured a thumping win for GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov over GM Vincent Keymer.
Abdusattorov was on 8.5/9 before he suffered a surprise loss to Mongolian IM Sugar Gan-Erdene in the final round of the day.
Group C featured many prodigies, with the Rookies team, which includes 10-year-old IM Roman Shogdzhiev, qualifying in place of the stronger, on paper, Spanish Duobeniajan Costa Calida ESJ team (Shogdzhiev beat GM Pepe Cuenca). 14-year-old GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, meanwhile, used the tournament to improve his blitz rating, picking up 66 points after scoring an unbeaten 11/12 for Generation XYZA.
One player who won't get to play in the knockout is 10-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan, but she reminded us all how special she is with a 2307 8/12 performance that saw her gain 75.2 rating points. A five-game winning streak included defeating GM Bella Khotenashvili.
Interview with incredibly talented 🏴 Bodhana Sivanandan, who is currently 6/9 and has beaten an IM and a Grandmaster! pic.twitter.com/08JlNThK4i
— Take Take Take (@TakeTakeTakeApp) June 14, 2025
Pool D: Team MGD1 Roll On
| Rank | Team | Matches | + | = | - | MP | GP |
| 1 | Team MGD1 | 13 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 25 | 65.5 |
| 2 | KazChess | 13 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 24 | 62.5 |
| 3 | Hetman GKS Katowice | 13 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 52 |
| 4 | Barys.kz | 13 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 19 | 54.5 |
| 5 | Team Hungary | 13 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 18 | 51.5 |
| 6 | Noval Group Kyrgyzstan | 13 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 17 | 48 |
| 7 | Mongolia-A | 13 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 16 | 44.5 |
| 8 | English Knightmares | 13 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 12 | 40.5 |
| 9 | The London Legends | 13 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 35 |
| 10 | Danish Futures | 13 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 8 | 26.5 |
| 11 | Perfect | 13 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 29 |
| 12 | Uppsala SSS | 13 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 5 | 25 |
| 13 | Equity Bank, Kenya | 13 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 2 | 9.5 |
| 14 | REY AHOGADO | 13 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 2 |
Team MGD1, fresh from winning the FIDE World Rapid Team Championship, look just as formidable in blitz, with IM Stavroula Tsolakidou (10.5/13), GM Leon Luke Mendonca (9.5/10), and GM Arjun Erigaisi (11/13) among the star performers.
Arjun's performance would have been even better if he hadn't been checkmated in a wild final-round game against GM David Navara, who also scored 11/13 as Hetman GKS Katowice succeeded in qualifying somewhat against the odds.
KazChess, who finished second, saw GM Andrey Esipenko score 10 wins in a row before losing to GM Pranav Venkatesh, but the star was a teenager, Islam Aiten, who scored 12/13 and picked up 126 rating points on the "recreational board"—needless to say, he won't be eligible to play on that board in 2026!
Another Kazakh team, Barys.kz, edged out Team Hungary, so that the 16 finalists are set for Sunday's showdown. Each match will be played over two mini-matches, with colors reversed. The Knockout pairings look as follows:
Tied matches will be decided by up to three more blitz mini-matches, and then, if necessary, by one of the pairs of players competing in a single armageddon game.
How to watch?
The live broadcast was hosted by GM Daniel King and IM Jovanka Houska.
The 2025 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships run June 11-15 in London, UK, with over 50 teams of six players competing. Each team must feature at least one female player and one "recreational player," never rated 2000+. The Rapid is a 12-round Swiss with a time control of 15 minutes for all moves, plus a 10-second increment per move. The Blitz (3+2) begins with teams playing a round-robin in pools before the top 16 play a knockout, where each clash features two mini-matches.
Previous coverage:
Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
