KiriyamaKazuo, coached by IM David Pruess, won the u1600 tournament of CoachChamps 2025 with 6/7. With only one loss in round four, against frank, coached by WGM Dina Belenkaya, he otherwise kept control throughout the entire event.
At the top of the coach standings, on 16 points apiece, are Belenkaya, Levy Rozman, and Robert Ramirez.
The round-robin for Group 4 (rated 1600-1999) is on Friday, October 10, starting at 11:00 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8:30 p.m. IST. That’s the last day of the event.
Tournament Standings
There are three coaches in the lead, with just one tournament left. CM Can Kabadayi and Pruess are just one point behind.
Coach Standings
Thursday featured the u1600 section, the second-strongest tournament of the event. You can see the participants and their respective coaches listed below.
In fighting for the top spot, the battle was closest between KiriyamaKazuo and runner-up Sebu13, coached by Ramirez. For the latter, their opening preparation for round one paid off greatly: a Stafford Gambit led to a resignation in nine moves.
That same round, we saw a brilliant attack by house_of_pancakes, coached by commentator IM Andras Toth, who after 20…Qe7?? unleashed a decisive knight fork with 21.Nxf5!, taking advantage of the pin.
Our first tragic moment (of many) came early, and it showed up in the form of a stalemate. dq_555, coached by GM Arturs Neiksans, unfortunately took away the last square from her opponent’s king, just when the win in the palm of her hand.
At the start of the broadcast, Toth identified dq_555 as one of the favorites to win the event. While she achieved many good (and winning) positions, fortune just wasn’t on her side in this one. She outplayed Sebu13 in the penultimate round, for example, but allowed a threefold repetition—a combination of nerves and time pressure.
The last round was even more tragic. She found the most brilliant move of the tournament, sacrificing her queen for a checkmate in two moves…
… only to resign four moves later, after missing the equally brilliant 29…Qxh2!!, with the same idea of …Rh4#. She finished on 3/7.
Back to runner-up Sebu13, probably the most critical encounter of the tournament was his game with the eventual winner in round three. The rook endgame teetered on the edge of a draw or win, but the champion prevailed in the end.
With that win, KiriyamaKazuo took the sole lead on 3/3, but immediately let go of it with his only loss of the event, against frank. In terms of drama, it was certainly the game of the tournament; first frank dropped a whole rook with check, but then KiriyamaKazuo returned the favor, and when the smoke cleared frank was up two pawns.
Frank stops the leader KiriyamaKazuo, after both players hang their rooks in a time scramble!https://t.co/77kC3fUUop#CoachChamps pic.twitter.com/vdfdC1vuOY
— chess24 (@chess24com) October 9, 2025
That wasn’t frank’s best swindle, by the way. In round six against TheLearnerofGames, coached by IM Levy Rozman, he had a similar feat. His opponent sacrificed his queen for a back rank checkmate—Puzzle-Rush-style—only to realize it’s not a checkmate after all. Oops!
KiriyamaKazuo recovered quickly from that one loss in round four and avoided any tilt, as he explained:
I tend to get pretty tilted. The thing is, going into this event, I don’t know if it’s because I wasn’t just playing for me, I knew I had to do well for Pruess, I felt some responsibility that made me not get so tilted. That helped me, but of course I was super nervous.
I knew I had to do well for Pruess.
—KiriyamaKazuo
He won the last three games after that. In the first of those three wins, he found the brilliant 13.Nxf7!!, a knockout blow that overloaded the enemy queen. He won quickly, as Black immediately blundered the queen on the next move.
KiriyamaKazuo credited a lot of his tournament victory to a swindle in round one against cegalleta, who finished in tied third-fifth with frank on four points. He was getting crushed out of the opening, but got a lucky break when his opponent left a rook hanging—and won exactly on move 101.
He reflected, “That comeback against cigalleta made me quite confident because, I mean, that’s like the opposite, it’s like a boost to your confidence when you’re the one that can get the swindle.”
Cigalleta’s most stylish checkmate came in round three against frank, with 24.Ng6# sealing the deal.
KiriyamaKazuo, after winning, tipped his hat to the competition, saying, “Props to everyone. No game was easy at all.” He also credited his coach, with one thing that stood out being the analysis without an engine: “He always gave me such excellent answers and… in general he didn’t use [the engine], which I told him I appreciate very much, because you know, you’re with a master, you want to hear his thoughts.”
Another aspect of Pruess’ coaching that set him apart was his dedication to opening preparation. “The prep that he gave me for these games was legendary,” said KiriyamaKazuo, revealing that Pruess spent 30 hours researching the opponents.
Answering how he deals with the fatigue of playing seven rapid games, KiriyamaKazuo said he doesn’t get tired of chess at all. He gave an example: at his first chess tournament, which was recent, he missed his bus because he was busy playing on Chess.com: “I just get completely focused on the game and forget about everything else.”
I just get completely focused on the game and forget about everything else.
—KiriyamaKazuo
As for what’s next, he wants to play more over-the-board classical tournaments.” He didn’t know there were regular FIDE events in Uruguay, and he recently found out that they’re not so rare.
But for CoachChamps, there is just one more day to go. After the u2000 group, who do you think will rise as the best coach? Let us know in the comments below!
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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