Rogov Clutches 3-Check Championship In Grand Final Reset

FM Matfey Rogov now holds two Chess.com variant titles after the 17-year-old won the 2025 Chess.com 3-Check Championship in a thrilling Grand Final Reset. Rogov, who is also the site's Atomic Chess champion, played the "game of the tournament" to dispatch Greek FM Vasilios Kasioumis, claim the title, and win the $750 first prize.

Eight community qualifiers allowed thousands of hopefuls to compete in the 3-Check Championship, and in March, the molecularly stimulating Atomic Chess will be featured.

Standings/Prizes

• Winners Quarterfinals: Taher Stunned, Specialists Advance
• Winners Semifinals: Kasioumis, Rogov Scrape Through
• Winners Final: Atomic Champion Rogov Wraps Up Winners Final
• Losers Bracket: Kasioumis Is Taher's Achilles' Heel
• Grand Final: Rivals Reunite, Rogov Plays "Game Of The Tournament"

Eight of the top variant specialists converged on Friday, hoping to become the Chess.com 3-Check champion and take home a cheque of $750. Nikolaos Sklavounos, Kasioumius, CM Jesse Zafirakos, Arian Rahimpour, Rogov, FM Teo Tomulic, IM Yoseph Taher, and FM Javier Benitez completed a GM-less field, and several had to work their way past more than 900 players in their respective qualifiers to earn their spots.

For a victor to be crowned, they would have to make their way through a double-elimination bracket, duking it out in best-of-four, one-on-one matches with a 3+0 time control. Commentator and GM Jon Ludvig Hammer teased the entertainment value of 3-Check: "3-Check is full of tricks, and you have to accurately assess sacrifices to lure the opponent's king into the open so that you can give the three checks required to win the game."

Winners Quarterfinals: Taher Stunned, Specialists Advance

Despite being the only IM and highest-rated blitz player in the field, Taher was stunned by Kasioumis, who finished as a runner-up to GM Jose Martinez in the 2023 Variant Community Series 3-Check Final. The match score was 3-2, and the player moving first won each game, demonstrating the advantage of playing with White in this variant.

Chess.com's Atomic Chess champion Rogov was the only player who clean-swept his opponent and did so sporting the most aggressive style of the eight qualifiers.

Zafirakos and Benitez won their respective matches by 3-1 margins and progressed to the Winners Semifinals.

Winners Semifinals: Kasioumis, Rogov Scrape Through

Both of the Winners Semifinals matches followed the same, with Black winning two games to kick off each match and final scores of 3-2. In Kasioumis-Zafirakos, the Greek FM saw Zafirakos' trap-riddled 2.g5 opening and castled queenside, eventually securing victory with a third check on the 18th move.

Meanwhile, Rogov dispatched Benitez in a bout that featured orthodox openings, confirming a Rogov-Kasioumis Winners Final.

Winners Final: Atomic Champion Rogov Wraps Up Winners Final

Rogov got off to a flying start in the Winners Final after grinding his way to a 31-move win with Black, but a resilient response by Kasioumis meant that this match went the distance. With the scores locked at 2-2, Rogov played his trusty Nimzowitsch Defense: French Connection Variation and pierced through White's defense with a series of clever pawn breaks.

Kasioumis' king was soon exposed, allowing Rogov to crash through with consecutive checks and book his spot in the Winners Grand Final.

Losers Bracket: Kasioumis Is Taher's Achilles' Heel

Meanwhile, in the Losers Bracket, Taher was reminding the field why he was one of the favorites to win it all. A 2.5-0.5 match win against Benitez, followed by a 3-0 routing of Zafirakos, gave Taher a berth to avenge his previous loss at the hands of Kasioumis.

The winner would earn the right to reenter the Winners Bracket and challenge Rogov for the title.

This match came down to the wire once again, with Kasioumis doubling down on his earlier victory and eliminating Taher. Though Taher would have been disappointed not to finish higher than third, he has a lot of reasons to celebrate this week—the 25-year-old also picked up a maiden GM-norm at the 2025 Indonesia Grandmaster Tournament in Bandung.

Grand Final: Rivals Reunite, Rogov Plays "Game Of The Tournament"

Having bounced back from the Losers Final, Kasioumis rode a wave of momentum and executed an "amazing comeback" to beat Rogov by a score of 3-0 in the Winners Bracket Grand Final. However, due to Rogov's undefeated status in the tournament, a Grand Final Reset was required to determine who would walk away with the top prize.

The players traded blows in the first four games, winning one game each with White and Black, forcing the match into a winner-takes-all showdown. Thanks to his victory in the previous match, Kasioumis played with the white pieces and Rogov had to play with Black.

A quiet French Defense was the battleground for the decider, and Kasioumis soon found himself with two checks on the board, though the consequence was that Black's king could find a haven on the queenside.

As both players' clocks dwindled, Rogov suddenly found an infiltration move with his queen. Kasioumis immediately noticed that Rogov would be able to force his way to 3-Check and resigned. Hammer would later call this "the game of the tournament."

With the Atomic Chess Championship looming in March, Rogov will be bullish about his chances to secure a second Community Championship title, given that he won the 2024 edition.

The Chess.com 3-Check Championship is part of the 2025 Chess.com Community Championships, and the event is open to all members of the Chess.com Community Club. The winners of eight qualifiers played in a double-elimination knockout bracket to decide the best 3-Check player on Chess.com. The event featured a $2,500 prize fund.

Previous coverage:

• • 3-Check Community Championship Knockout Will Have No GMs
  • Naroditsky Comes Clutch In Final Rush, Qualifies With 7 Others
  • It's Tactics Time! The Chess.com Puzzles Championship Starts On January 16
  • Chess.com Community Championships 2025 Cycle Kicks Off January And Features 12 Events