WFM Anna Cramling blundered a piece against 12-year-old Zac Chua from Canada and didn’t realize until three moves later, but she shrugged off that slip-up to win the 6th episode of Kids vs. Stars 2.5-1.5. “I would rather go skydiving!” she said of facing four kids, but she made a nerve-racking draw against Basil Alsalman from Saudi Arabia, and picked up wins over WCM Heaven Fady from Egypt and eight-year-old Kayal Vijay from England.
Simul Results
Kids vs. Stars is a ChessKid series that pits established players against promising young talents. The Kids won the first two editions, but in the last four the stars have struck back, with GMs Anish Giri and Daniel Naroditsky winning 2.5-1.5, before GM David Howell won 3-1. This time, it was 23-year-old Cramling who faced the challenge of taking on talented kids, representing four different continents.
How was she feeling?
I’M TERRIFIED https://t.co/HQLHXcZmjH
— Anna Cramling (@AnnaCramling) October 6, 2025
The simul lived up to her expectations, with Anna saying afterward:
I was sweating and I was feeling a bit dizzy and these are the symptoms when I’m pretty stressed. So I would guess it was, I wish I had a heart rate monitor now, but I would guess it was 140 at least, 130-140. I was definitely stressed. Time passed so quickly. It feels like I played a classical game in a tournament where I was quite nervous for my opponent.
Anna estimates her heart rate during the simul! pic.twitter.com/kYGayUByqp
— chess24 (@chess24com) October 6, 2025
Anna had the white pieces on all four boards and received 65 minutes plus a 15-second increment, while the Kids had 15+15. The four games were played simultaneously, with the first side to reach 2.5 points winning the encounter.
Anna has championed the infamous Cow Opening, but she’s also just released a Chessable course on 1.d4 with her mother GM Pia Cramling.
So Anna opened 1.d4, “my favorite move, my opening of choice,” on all four boards. Let’s take a look at the games.
Anna Cramling 0-1 Zac Chua
Zac Chua, a promising student from the Silver Knights Chess Academy, got the upper hand early on against Anna, who clarified that the kids couldn’t hear her before revealing her fears about the game after the opening.
Anna: “Can the kids hear me, by the way?”https://t.co/pjuZb8MBxM pic.twitter.com/OAKbh6JcpE
— chess24 (@chess24com) October 6, 2025
She’d already equalized, however, when disaster struck with 19.Bb2??.
Zac’s surprised expression told the whole story and, after making sure he was missing nothing, he took the free piece on f3. Anna didn’t show any emotion, and it turns out there was a reason—it took a few moves before she counted pieces and realized what had happened!
This was terrifying. I’ve never been this stressed! I literally lost a piece in a game and I didn’t know I’d lost a piece… That’s why I wasn’t panicking. I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got everything under control,’ and then I was like, ‘Wait, it feels like I don’t have that many pieces. How is it so hard to defend?’ And then I see that I’m a piece down…
I literally lost a piece in a game and I didn’t know I’d lost a piece!
—Anna Cramling
Zac was ruthless from there, with Anna admitting, “I should have resigned sooner just to have more time with the other games, but I was too stubborn to resign!”
So that was a chastening loss, but at least by the time Anna resigned she was able to level the scores.
Anna Cramling 1-0 Heaven Fady
Anna scored a win over Heaven Fady, a two-time African Youth Chess Champion born in 2014.
Heaven made some positional inaccuracies that allowed Anna to launch an attack, with a curiosity that both Anna and, at first, commentator FM Mike Klein, missed a mate-in-one at the end.
Anna scored a similarly smooth win over Under-8 British Chess Champion Kayal Vijay, who says her favorite chess player is her “elder,” 10-year-old WFM Bodhana Sivanandan. Anna kept up the pressure, and when she got a rook to the seventh rank Black’s position became impossible to defend.
Victory in the match was far from guaranteed, however, since the remaining game was a thriller.
Anna Cramling ½-½ Basil Alsalman
Basil, also born in 2014, was a surprise star at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, interacting with the likes of GMs Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. He also gave an interview to Klein where he stated his main focus was to become foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, with becoming a chess grandmaster something of a side goal. Basil has built up a following on TikTok, and he certainly put on a show in the simul, suddenly sacrificing on h3 in what had seemed a quiet position.
Anna was rocked:
I thought I lost that game! At first I was like, ‘Ah, this is a bad move. This doesn’t work.’ And then I quickly realized the rook can just come in the next move. What have I done?
Anna dug deep, however, and managed to find the only way to survive—not that that saved her from Basil celebrating the draw in almost king-throwing style!
BASIL FIST PUMPS FOR THE DRAW!! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/AMX8Qtf655
— ChessKid.com 👑 (@ChessKidcom) October 6, 2025
That draw was enough to give Anna a 2.5-1.5 victory in the match, with Anna commenting, “My mum was busy, she was not able to watch this, which I think was great for her nerves!”
Anna commented of her opponents:
I am so happy I won against the kids! I think it may be the last time I do. I think all of these kids will end up becoming stronger and have great chess careers in front of them, so I wish them all the best and thank you for playing against me. I had a lot of fun!
That wasn’t quite all, however, since Anna ended by passing on the baton to WFM Alexandra Botez.
Anna: “I & @alexandrabotez played a match yesterday where if I won the match she had to be the next person to play the kids, so if you do another Star vs. Kids Alexandra Botez will be the next person because I beat her & she promised this! Mike, hold her accountable for that!”😅 pic.twitter.com/ymt6vyz4kJ
— chess24 (@chess24com) October 6, 2025
It sounds like a deal!
Kids vs. Stars is an event in which the next generation of prodigies challenges established chess players and celebrities. On October 6, WFM Anna Cramling took on WCM Heaven Fady, Kayal Vijay, Basil Alsalman, and Zac Chua in a clock simul where she had 65+15 and the kids had 15+15, with the winning side being the first to 2.5 points.
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