Beradze, Stukopin Lead Symetra To Corporate League Crown

Insurance company Symetra Financial was crowned as the champions of the 2025 North American Corporate Chess League (NACCL) on Thursday after their master-laden team defeated trading firm Jane Street 2.5-1.5 in the Final. 

Symetra's IM Irakli Beradze and GM Andrey Stukopin's undefeated runs in the Knockout were the catalysts for their company's success, and they toppled two of the "Big Four" accounting firms, PWC and Ernst & Young, en route to the Final.

Knockout Bracket

Standings

• Regular Season: Finance And Tech Giants Claim Knockout Spots
• Quarterfinals: Meta Scrapes Through
• Semifinals: Jane Stree, Symetra Book Finals Spots
• Final: Favorites Defeat Defending Champions

Regular Season: Finance And Tech Giants Claim Knockout Spots

The NACCL has been a chance for many of North America's most recognizable companies to play for bragging rights in an online competition for the past four years. Since its inception, it has continued to grow in popularity.

All of the former winners: Susquehanna, Google (four-time), Deloitte, Capital One, Symetra (two prior to season 11), and Jane Street participated in the 11th season but only the latter two managed to qualify for the knockout finals. Renowned companies such as Meta (formerly known as Facebook), Airbnb, IBM, and Roblox were some of the 45 companies who joined, vying for corporate glory.

After six weeks of regular season play, the eight teams to qualify were Symetra, Jane Street, Meta, Ernst & Young, Lyft, Anduril, Stripe, and the GM Andrey Baryshpolets-led PWC. Although teams could field up to 30 players during the regular season, the top four (plus one armageddon player) is all that counted in the Knockout. Therefore, one team, Symetra, were the firm favorites due to having two GMs and two IMs in their lineup.

Quarterfinals: Meta Scrapes Through

Of all the companies to play in NACCL's 11th season, Meta is among the most famous and in the Quarterfinals, their title ambitions were almost cut short. Unironically, this was due to the defensive efforts of defense technology company Anduril.  However, Meta were saved by an unlikely hero, their board five, whose result only counted if the match could not be settled on the first four boards.

FM Rolad Feng got Anduril off to a perfect start, capping off his game against Praveen Sanjay with dexterous combinational play, albeit missing checkmate in one. Meta then clapped back with wins on boards three and four.

The match was eventually tied 2-2, meaning that Meta's Prathik R Kaundinya's win over Zachary Taylor Johnson on board five clinched the match for the social media trailblazers.

Symetra, Jane Street, and Ernst & Young all won their respective quarterfinals matches, but they weren't without drama. Following a board four forfeiture for Symetra due to IM Yannick Kambrath's late arrival, Beradze was forced to play for a win against Baryshpolets with the black pieces. All three results were possible right up until the final moves of this nervy game.

Semifinals: Jane Street, Symetra Book Finals Spots

The Semifinals saw the favored teams breeze past their opposition and Symetra's all-titled top four boards won 4-0 against Ernst & Young. Stukopin-Lui was a particularly instructive positional game in the Giuoco Piano that culminated in a win for Stukopin.

Jane Street's match against Meta ended with a similar score of 3.5-0.5, with Christopher Yang being the only player able to steal half a point off the defending champions. The highlight of the match was Mathias Shundi's inspired victory over Yash Shah, which commanded the attention of commentator and GM Daniel Naroditsky, who later stated: "Shundi is a 2400 in a 2100's clothing."

Off the back of their NACCL success, Jane Street has been actively supporting chess tournaments around the world through sponsorship, including the 2025 Sydney International Open and the New Zealand Women's Chess Championships.

Final: Favorites Beat Defending Champions

While Symetra outrated Jane Street on all four boards, Jane Street's FM Jacob Furfine, FM David Peng, Yang, and Shundi played fearlessly and caused team Symetra plenty of problems. On board one, Beradze tamed Furfine's Bird's Opening, but this result was soon neutralized on board two after Peng upset GM Vladimir Belous.

Multiple miracles were required for Jane Street to knock over Symetra and, unfortunately for the defending champions, Stukopin ended their chances of winning the match outright, dazzling his opponent on board three with a shocking rook sacrifice.

For Symetra's board four Kambrath, the situation then became clear, a draw was all that was required for the Frenchman. In a nod to Shundi's strength, Kambrath switched his focus to drawing the rook and pawn endgame and soon delivered the decisive draw and the championship to Symetra.

Beradze spoke to Naroditsky and GM Kayden Troff at the conclusion of the tournament and spoke about how Symetra's healthy chess culture had helped their team reach full strength: "The company supported us and even some of our coworkers are still watching this stream. When you have support, it is easy!"

With this being their third victory, Symetra are one title shy of Google, who won in season two, three, five, and six. If they continue to field teams with four titled players, it is probably a matter of time until they equal or surpass Google and become the most successful NACCL team in history.

The 2025 North American Corporate Chess League consists of a regular season and a Knockout, with all games played in a team format with a 10+2 time control. The 2025 edition is open to any North American corporation and will take place between May 1 and June 5, with a Final on June 12 determining the North American Corporate Chess League champions.