QQQ1M, IM Levy Rozman‘s student, dominated the second day of CoachChamps 2025, which featured the rating range of improvers between 800 and 1199. Playing quickly, the Algerian youngster and GothamChess fan—who displays his coach in his profile picture—scored 6.5/7 and won the tournament with a round to spare.
He finished a whopping 2.5 ahead of three players on 4 points: ClingermanChess (coached by IM Andras Toth), P1ngu7 (coached by CM Can Kabadayi), and kashcarbon (coached by IM David Pruess).
The round-robin for Group 3 (rated 1200-1599) is on Thursday, October 9, starting at 11:00 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8:30 p.m. IST.
Tournament Standings
It’s the halfway point, with two tournaments down and two to go. Rozman leads, with WGM Dina Belenkaya two points behind.
Coach Standings
This tournament was another eight-player round-robin with a 10+2 time control. You can see the players and their respective coaches listed below.
Unlike the winner of the previous day, QQQ1M zipped through the tournament undefeated. Had he even lost two games, he would have still won the tournament outright, but only one draw spoiled an otherwise perfect performance.
His fastest win came in round four against B_Chris11, coached by GM Ben Finegold. QQQIM won in nine moves, finishing with six more seconds than he started with, when his opponent grabbed an extremely poisoned pawn in the center of the board.
Curiously, in that same round, ClingermanChess, also grabbed a poisoned pawn on the same square, d4, though in this case it didn’t take a special tactic to punish the move. The respective blunders happened almost simultaneously, a double warning to all of us: double-check your surroundings before snacking on seemingly free pawns.
QQQ1M finished every single game with more time than his opponent, and his quick play could have backfired but never quite did, at least not decisively. As commentator Pruess pointed out, round five was a situation where he missed three wins in three moves; and although he won anyway, slowing down could have ensured the desired result.
On three occasions, both players missed that White could draw by gaining the opposition. White had three minutes, while Black had over five, but they played all their moves instantly, sending the eval bar to the moon and back.
At the finish line, the champion did a sort of victory lap, promoting several of his pawns to bishops before delivering the checkmate.
QQQ1M is a GothamChess fan, and he described working with Rozman for a month as “a dream come true.” He started “serious chess” by watching Rozman’s videos, and said that the advice he received during lessons was helpful: “I loved his teaching style, he helped me a lot.”
“It was like a dream come true. I basically started serious chess from his videos,” says QQQ1M about working with @GothamChess for one month. pic.twitter.com/2kVMFT9wvo
— chess24 (@chess24com) October 8, 2025
He admitted that, in lessons, they talked about him slowing down. Although he raced forward anyway, it worked out in the tournament.
ClingermanChess was one of the three players to finish on four points, behind the champion. He scored three wins, two draws, and two losses. The first of those draws was an absolute miracle, and his reaction on camera was one of a man who’s been given a second life.
The next round, he was the only player to hold QQQ1M to a draw. Strangely enough, it ended like a professional game, by threefold repetition—no other game really ended this “grandmasterly.”
Tied second-fourth is a fantastic result, although the last round for ClingermanChess was a bitter one. He found a fork to win his opponent’s queen in the following position, taking advantage of the pin…
… but went on to blunder his own queen later on. Had he converted the advantage, he would have finished in sole second with 5/7. Only those who play can understand the pressure and what it can do!
P1ngu7, Kabadayi’s student, showed the most resilience among the players tied on four points. He started with two losses, against ClingermanChess and then QQQ1M, but went on to win four out of his five remaining games.
It was the opposite situation from Kabadayi’s student the day before; in that case, his student won the first three games and then lost all four that remained. When P1ngu7 got his first win, in round three, his coach was ecstatic, cheering, “He’s my boy! He’s my boy!”
Kashkarbon, coached by the other commentator, Pruess, also finished on the same score. He lost two games in the middle, but won the last two to finish strong. This was that tragic game that ClingermanChess lost, despite winning a queen, but it was a celebration for Pruess in the broadcast:
The next tournament will be even stronger, with players all the way to 1599. You can check out the player field below along with their coaches.
CoachChamps 2025 is Chess.com’s tournament to find out who’s the best chess coach in the world. Any community member can participate in CoachChamps, but eight star coaches draft students on September 10. They then have until October 6 to help their student improve. Round-robins for each rating band go from October 7-10. The time control is 10+2 and the prize fund is $25,000; coaches earn prizes, while students win exclusive online coaching sessions, one year of free Diamond membership, and a $100 Chessable voucher. The winner of each round-robin will also win an exclusive piece of signed merch.
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