September 10, 2025

Erdogmus Yagiz Kaan — remember this electric name! This 14-year-old chess wizard from Turkey is already the highest-rated player ever for his age, boasting an amazing Elo rating of 2646. On Sunday, at the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Yagiz created a stunning endgame that left everyone awestruck. In round four, he checkmated India’s Aditya Mittal in just 42 moves, producing a chess masterpiece that experts say will be remembered for ages. Praveen Thipsay, the seven-time national champion from India, said, “This game will remain in the books of combinations.” The position on the board was wild: Mittal had two queens, a rook, and an extra pawn — a huge material advantage! But Yagiz, with only two rooks and some pawns, was facing a massive minus 12 in material. Amazingly, the computer instantly saw a forced mate in six moves or less, even though Yagiz had only minutes ticking on his clock. In an exclusive talk with Chessbase India, Yagiz admitted he first thought of "rook takes queen" but then discovered a magical, unstoppable series of moves leading to checkmate. Yagiz chased Mittal’s white king like a predator, trapping it with no escape. The killer checkmate came from a pawn that had once blocked Mittal’s queen. Though Mittal’s king had four possible escape squares, two were tightly held by Yagiz’s king and the other two by his pawns. The hardworking rooks pushed the king relentlessly upward, leaving no room to breathe. In this tough 11-round Swiss tournament, which is a stepping stone to the prestigious Candidates event, Yagiz was seeded 52nd. He had already shocked chess fans by denying world champion D Gukesh a win in the previous round with a smart perpetual check. Trained by top Azerbaijani Grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, this Turkish teenager also frequently defeats world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in online blitz battles! The rapid rise of Yagiz suggests the chess world might be witnessing the birth of a new superstar. The buzz reminds us of Carlsen’s heroic path at age 14 when he won tough games against big names like Sipke Ernst, Evgeny Vladmirov, Surya Ganguly, and Peter Heine Nielsen back in 2004. Yes, Carlsen was just 14 then — and now Yagiz is showing he can blaze a similar trail!

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Tags: Erdogmus yagiz kaan, Chess prodigy, Fide grand swiss, Aditya mittal, Samarkand, Chess endgame,