 "World No.2 Hikaru Nakamura losing to a 13-year-old chess player led to some surprising reactions. Image: FIDE on X")
World No.2 Hikaru Nakamura suffered a stunning loss to a 13-year-old chess player on day one of the 2025 World Blitz Team Championship on Saturday. Nakamura was in top form, winning 6 out of his games as top-seed WR Chess clinched all 12 of their matches on the opening day of the Blitz championship. But the American Grandmaster’s only defeat on the day came against International Master Khagan Ahmad from Azerbaijan, who is only 13 years old.
The victory over Nakamura helped Khagan Ahmad (Turkish Airlines Sports Club, 2232) complete a hat-trick of wins. He ended the day with a triple hat-trick – winning nine games in a row.
Fans stunned as Nakamura loses to a 13-year-old
Nakamura’s defeat quickly became a viral discussion topic among the fans as FIDE shared the video on X. One of the fans noted the “Chess humbles us all,” while another took a dig at the American GM, stating that Hikaru will soon start “commenting about the quality of Blitz and why it doesn’t make sense to play it anymore.”
Another chess fan remarked: “Yess! Hikaru has such a bloated ego and is a cheap braggart. So glad a kid put a checkmate to it.”
Meanwhile, most of the top teams finished in the top four of their groups to qualify for the 16-team knockout on Sunday. In 2024, the World Blitz Team Championship was played on the same day, but in the ongoing edition, the pool stage and knockout rounds have been separated over two days.
On Saturday, GM Jan Krzysztof Duda of WR Chess emerged as the best performer among all 53 teams. He registered a score of 11.5/12, while Sarbartho Mani (Freedom), GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (Generation XYZA) and GM Arjun Erigaisi (MGD1) scored an unbeaten 11/12 each.
GM Andrey Esipenko (KazChess) and Islam Alten (KazChess) also managed a score of 11/12, but after suffering one defeat each.
Erigaisi shines as India’s MGD1 top Pool D
Talking about the Indian team MGD1, which is led by Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi. The Rapid championship winners won all 12 matches to reach the knockouts. Besides Erigaisi, who registered a score of 11/12, the other top performers were IM Stavroula Tsolakidou (10.5/13) and GM Leon Luke Mendonca (9.5/10).
World Blitz Team Championship pool stage standings
Pool A
| 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 |
Pool B
| 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 |
Pool C
| 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 |
Pool D
| 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 |