Year In Review 2025 – Chess.com

2025 will go down as a year that showcased chess at its very best, marked by performances at the highest level and record-breaking activity online. As we have moved to 2026, it’s time to look at the moments, games, and numbers that defined the past year and captivated fans all over the world. 

In this Year in Review, we break down the standout performances, biggest rating climbs, most active players, and the Chess.com statistics that tell the story of a game continuing to grow both over the board and online.

Over-The-Board Statistics:

Chess.com Statistics:

Best Overall Classical Performance

GM Magnus Carlsen has long put classical chess in the back seat, focusing on Freestyle and speed chess events. However, his seventh victory in Norway Chess, combined with a few wins in the Bundesliga and the Norwegian League, was enough to top the list of the highest overall performance in classical with 2861.

It was also a good year for the world number-two GM Hikaru Nakamura, who scored plus performances in both the American Cup and Norway Chess. We have excluded his 22 games in the Race To Candidates, which secured him the required 40 games he needed to qualify for the prestigious event. Even with the games against weaker opposition excluded, Nakamura has the second highest performance of the year.

Among the more active players, GM Fabiano Caruana had the highest performance with 2775. The one that stands out is GM Vincent Keymer, who was just behind on 2774 with the fifth highest performance. Keymer’s performance is one of the most significant breakthroughs of the year, establishing him firmly among the world elite at just 20 years old.

(All data provided by Mehmet Mars Seven)

Top Tournament Performance

In the London Chess Classic, the last major classical tournament of the year, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov delivered the tournament performance of the year. Abdusattorov scored 7.5/9 and a 2932 performance after winning six games in a row.  The timing was great, as the young Uzbek had dropped from sixth to 17th in the world rankings after a disappointing 2.5/9 in the Sinquefield Cup. 

German star Keymer had a fantastic 2025, with two massive performances, that makes this top-five list, first in the Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters and then in the European Club Cup. 

French teenager, and reigning World Junior Champion, GM Marc’Andria Maurizzi also deserves a mention with his dominating 2904 performance in the Djerba Masters. The last player to make the list, is GM Richard Rapport, who scored an excellent performance on board one for Hungary in the European Team Championship.

(All data provided by Mehmet Mars Seven)

Biggest Rating Gain In Classical (2300+)

The list of the biggest climbers among players rated above 2300 is expectedly dominated by rising teenagers, all born after 2008. Four of these players secured IM titles in the last year.

Fifteen-year-old Indian IM Sriram Adarsh Uppala had the highest jump, climbing from a rating of just above 2300  in January to 2472 in December. Most of that gain can be attributed to great performances in Hungary in April, but the teenager also picked up 60 rating points at home in India.

Fourteen-year-old IM Christian Gloeckler from Germany would’ve been first on the list if not for a rating drop in the last months of the year, but gaining a total of 135 points is impressive regardless. 

Biggest Rating Gain In Classical (Below 2300)

Below 2300, we see some extraordinary jumps, and all on the list are also teenagers.

At the start of the year, FM Kaige Wu from China was rated merely 1753. Fast forward to September, and the Chinese 15-year-old had gained a whopping 650 rating points to make it to 2403, the strength of an international master. He earned the FM title on the way, but with the meteoric rise it won’t be a surprise if he achieves greater titles soon. And it turns out he did so by only playing 40 FIDE-rated games, according to FIDE’s database.

In February, Kaige played two tournaments in Valencia, Spain where he gained an incredible 352 rating points. scoring 9/9 to win the first tournament, then 5/8 in the other one. His rampage didn’t end there, as he gained another 231 points in two tournaments in Spain and Germany in July and August.

Klim Perepelytsya-Melnyk from Ukraine also experienced a remarkable 600 rating points gain breaking 2000 in the last year, but the 16-year-old had already gained hundreds of points in rapid and blitz. 

Most Classical Games

The world’s most active players in classical chess all have in common that they have been playing regularly in Hungary, well-known as a global hotspot for norm tournaments with its high volume of classical events.

The most active player last year, was 16-year-old IM Md Imran, who played an impressive 247 games in the last year. Together with 15-year-old IM Santhosh Parvathareddy Ajay, who is third on the list with 223 games, they also both earned the IM title in the last year.

GM Gabor Nagy, another Hungarian, is second on the list as the most active grandmaster, having played 229 games. 

Most Tournament Games

Combining over-the-board with online tournaments, the most active player according to our research is Russian GM Alexander Rustemov, who played 1,072 games. That was three games more than second-place GM Alexey Sarana, while last year’s most active Nakamura is third with 1,026 games. GMs Matthias Bluebaum and Oleksandr Bortnyk were also very active, concluding the top-five list.

Most Chess.com Games Played

Chess.com members played over six billion games in 2025, but the total games logged by our most active player is truly staggering. The user bobbygiveamanafischer played an astonishing 120,618 games (around 330 games per day on average!), 15,000 more games than the second-most active user, gretelchen1 from Germany.

Most Chess.com Puzzles Solved

We were impressed when last year’s most active user had solved 145,000 puzzles. The user marlily555 from Norway has taken that to an entirely new level by solving more than 255,000 puzzles in less than a year. That’s around 700 puzzles per day!

KenCheung8899 isn’t far behind with 247,318 puzzles, while last year’s number-one Trident777 is also in the 200,000 club in third place. It’s worth noting that TheJooble is in fifth place for the second year in a row, jumping from 104,000 in 2024 to more than 164,000 in 2025!

Most Titled Tuesday Wins

Carlsen was the dominant player in our Titled Tuesday events, winning 17 tournaments out of his 49 events, finishing top-five in 65% of them. The Norwegian’s main rival has been Nakamura, who won nine events in 56 starts. 

GM Parham Maghsoodloo is third on the list with six wins, while GMs Hans Moke Niemann and Alexey Sarana both won five events each.

Most Popular Events

The inaugural Esports World Cup was a big success in terms of viewership, becoming the most watched event of the year, ahead of Norway Chess. 2025 also saw the first Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour.

Most Read Articles

The tragic passing of GM Daniel Naroditsky sent shockwaves through the chess world and became the most-read article of the year, and likely the most-read story in Chess.com’s history. Naroditsky was not only a world-class grandmaster, but also one of the game’s most beloved commentators, educators, and online personalities, making the loss resonate far beyond the professional circuit.

While the community gathered to mourn a legend, 2025 also saw moments of levity and high-stakes drama on the board. Curiously, the second-most read news article was the April Fool’s joke about our “revolutionary” new “Life Review” feature on our Chess.com app! The three other stories that made the list all feature Carlsen, with the famous table slam against Gukesh in Stavanger in third place.

1. Grandmaster, Popular Commentator Daniel Naroditsky Tragically Passes Away At 29
2. Chess.com Releases Revolutionary New “Life Review” On Android And iOS
3. Gukesh Beats Carlsen From Losing Position
4. Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi Agree To Share World Blitz Title, Ju Wins Women’s
5. Carlsen Survives Gukesh Drama To Win Norway Chess 2025: 7 Conclusions

Most Popular X Posts

1. accepting new name ideas for this piece: 52 million views

accepting new name ideas for this piece: pic.twitter.com/Nw5qbJxdyB

— Chess.com (@chesscom) March 14, 2025

2. WOW: 15 million views

WOW. pic.twitter.com/UadYYItqER

— Chess.com (@chesscom) June 1, 2025

3. An important update: 12 million views

An important update. pic.twitter.com/gwY69qczGI

— Chess.com (@chesscom) July 2, 2025

Most Popular Instagram Posts

1. live action chess hits different: 422,000 likes

2. Congratulations to Magnus and Ella 💍: 207,000 likes

3. Swipe for a surprise. #NorwayChess: 137,000 likes

Most Popular Instagram Reels:

1. HOW FAST Do Super Grandmaster CALCULATE CHESS POSITIONS…: 1.06 million likes

2. World No. 1 MEETS World No. 2 On the STAGE Before …: 771,000 likes

3. Professional Chess is VERY STRESSFUL : 642,000

Most Popular YouTube Videos

1. Professional Chess is VERY STRESSFUL: 18.4 million views

2. Magnus Carlsen is SURPRISED By 1600-RATED 3-YEAR-OLD INDIAN TALENT: 12.6 million views

3. HOW FAST Do Super Grandmaster CALCULATE CHESS POSITIONS: 10.7 million views

Most Popular Facebook Posts

1. Knight post: 151,000 likes
2. OH NO MY QUEEN!!: 29,000 likes
3. WOW: 24,000 likes

And that was the year in chess! What was your favorite video, post, moment, statistic, tournament, or match of the year? Let us know in the comments!