Movahed Defeats Erdogmus In Thrilling ChessKid Youth Championship
GM Sina Movahed defeated GM Yagiz Erdogmus, in the 2026 ChessKid Youth Championship U16 finals. The two teenage GMs tied for first place in the A Group in the preliminary round robin tournament, before defeating the top finishers in the B group, defending champion, GM Andy Woodward and IM Tani Adewumi, to reach the finals.
Group A Round Robin
Group A was led by the two 3100+ blitz stars, Erdogmus and Movahed, who were joined by IMs Patryk Cieslak and Henry Tudor, and Lu Miaoyi, along with the FM Sergey Sklokin. It wasn't easy for the top seeds as Sklokin defeated Erdogmus in their first game.
Erdogmus went for a winning bishop sac on h6, but he misplayed the followup and got checkmated as the Under 16 #ChessKid Youth Championship begins! https://t.co/3ZwQio8K5i pic.twitter.com/hCTaR38xZW
— chess24 (@chess24com) March 7, 2026
After that, Erdogmus righted the ship, defeating Movahed along the way.
Movahed also played well, scoring a nice sacrificial win against Sklokin.
Even in good form, it took a tense last-round time scramble for Movahed to ensure a top-two finish ahead of Tudor.
Sina Movahed celebrates after winning at the last moment just when Henry Tudor looked set to force a playoff! https://t.co/U9SJXQgmjv pic.twitter.com/DxLrflt9P6
— chess24 (@chess24com) March 7, 2026
The young stars were out for blood. You may notice there were no draws in that entire group!
Group B Round Robin
The B-group was led by IM Faustino Oro, the top seed, with a blitz rating over 3200, one of the highest in the world. However, Oro faced stiff competition from Woodward, the highest rated bullet player on the site, IMs Adewumi, Aaron Mendes, Ryo Chen, and FM Megan Paragua.
Perhaps surprisingly based on his online rating, Tani dominated the group, scoring a dominating 7.5/10. His win over Oro was his highest ever rated win on the site in blitz.
The fight for second was closer, with Woodward edging out Oro, thanks in part to being the only player with a plus score against Adewumi.
Semifinals
In the knockouts the winner of each group played the second place finisher of the other group. That meant that Movahed faced Adewumi. Adewumi continued his amazing form in the first game, scoring a convincing victory, but then dropped three in a row to his higher rated opponent. Movahed finished the match with a convincing tactical knockout.
Erdogmus faced Woodward in the remaining semifinal, a matchup of the two highest players in the field based on their classical ratings. Erdogmus demonstrated a clear superiority in this blitz format, winning by a convincing 3-0 score.
Finals
The finals between Movahed and Erdogmus was the closest match of the day. After an opening draw, Erdogmus struck first, winning with Black in the second game. His advantage didn't last long, as Movahed struck back in game three. A draw in game four set up the decisive final game.
Sina Movahed celebrates in style as he wins a thrilling final game to clinch the 2026 ChessKid Under 16 Youth Championship! pic.twitter.com/0u2nb7gJVc
— chess24 (@chess24com) March 8, 2026
After the match, Movahed had nothing but positive things to say regarding his opponent, explaining, "It's just amazing! My opponent is an amazing talent and he's also born in 2011, so he's younger than me, and to my eyes he's just a demon who plays very sharp and he sometimes finds unbelievable moves!"
We can expect many more matches between the tournament participants in the years ahead.
NM Jeremy Kane is the Instructional Content Manager for Chess.com, and the author of several courses in the Starting Out series, Queen’s Gambit Accepted, Trompowsky, and Tarrasch.
