Kids vs Stars: Can The Young Guns Checkmate the Chess Masters Again?
The talented youngsters dominated the first Kids vs. Stars match, but the experienced masters are not backing down and have brought in reinforcements. Can the stars turn the tide and outsmart their significantly younger opponents?
Kids vs. Stars is a new and fun series of matches showcasing the most talented youngsters against well-known stars. The first match was won convincingly by the Kids, FM Rose Atwell, and WFM Megan Paragua, defeating the Stars, WFM Anna Cramling, and WGM Nemo Zhou, by an impressive 12-point margin.
Nemo will be back for the Stars, but this time the Canadian content creator who became the Under-14 World Youth Champion for Girls is joined by none other than nine-time British Women's Champion and popular Chess.com commentator IM Jovanka Houska.
Their opponents might be young, but they're not lacking in chess talent. WFM Bodhana Sivanandan is just nine years old, but has repeatedly made headlines since winning a historic triple gold medal in the World Youth Championship last year. She is one of the top-rated players under 10 and recently she became the youngest ever to score a woman international master norm.
Twelve-year-old Antek Radzimski has just been warming up for this event, coming fresh from winning the European U12 Team Championship with the Polish team, where he scored a massive 6.5/7 on board 3. Known for his fighting spirit and skills with shorter time controls, he will pose a serious challenge to his older and more experienced opponents.
FM Mike "FunMaster" Klein, ChessKid's Head of Content & Scholastic Growth, is excited, saying:
In the last Kids vs. Stars, the youngins never gave the taxpayers a chance. While we always try to make the matchups close to equal, and I think we've done so here since, as we all know, kids are criminally underrated, there's a soft spot in my heart for the adults. After all, it takes no bravery for kids to line up against adults, but Jovi and Nemo are defending the shield against humans not even old enough to ride the big roller coaster! Let's see if the Stars can win one (read: survive the opening and win in the endgame).
The players will battle it out in a team match, with each kid facing each star six times in a 3+1 time control. The team with the most points at the end of this 24-game clash wins the match.
Chess.com’s Kids vs. Stars match will take place on Tuesday, July 16, at 12 p.m. PT / 3 p.m. ET. Catch all of the action on Chess.com’s Twitch and YouTube channels.
Tarjei Svensen is a Norwegian chess journalist who worked for some of the country's biggest media outlets and appeared on several national TV broadcasts. Between 2015 and 2019, he ran his chess website mattogpatt.no, covering chess news in Norwegian and partly in English.
In 2020, he was hired by Chess24 to cover chess news, eventually moving to Chess.com as a full-time chess journalist in 2023. He is also known for his extensive coverage of chess news on his X/Twitter account.
