Naroditsky Comes Clutch In Final Rush, Qualifies With 7 Others

GMs Ray Robson, Andy Woodward, Daniel Naroditsky, Pranav Venkatesh, and Raunak Sadhwani, as well as IMs Liam Putnam, Yoseph Theolifus Taher, and Anthony Atasanov, have qualified for the eight-player Knockout in the 2025 Chess.com Puzzles Championship.

While five-time champion Robson is a favorite, he was not one of the players to reach the highest score of 60 on Thursday; instead, it was achieved by Woodward (twice), Raunak, and Atasanov. The most clutch performance goes to Naroditsky, who squeezed in with a buzzer beater in his last Puzzle Rush and scored a personal best of 58. 

The Knockout is on Friday, January 17, starting at 12:00 p.m. ET / 18:00 CET / 10:30 p.m. IST.

Knockout Bracket

It's the second full week of January, and you know what that means. The world's greatest puzzle solvers will compete to prove who is the best at Puzzle Rush. It's clearly been Robson in previous years, but can he hold onto his laurels for a sixth consecutive time?

Previous editions were called the Puzzles World Championship, but this year—for the first time—the event kicks off the Chess.com Community Championships. All players can participate in these championships, and there is going to be one every month of the year featuring different variants. 

Anyone could join the first stage of the two-day championship, but only if they could score 50 points in a five-minute Puzzle Rush. The participants submitted Twitch or YouTube clips showing themselves completing this task in order to qualify.

Thursday featured five rounds of Puzzle Rush Royale. In each round, players attempted to score the best they could in three-minute Puzzle Rush. A 30-minute timer counted down for each round.

The 20 players with the highest scores moved on to round two.

Woodward, who made it to the Grand Final against Robson last year, put up 60 points and even stopped playing for the last 15 minutes of round one. He knew that this score was good enough to guarantee entry to the next round, so he'd earned a break. 

The last puzzle, which he got wrong, was the one below. White has just a bishop against rook, but the pawn on d6 makes a difference! Can you find the solution? White to move.

Robson surprisingly wouldn't qualify until round three. In the first one, he scored 55, but this wasn't the impressive part. Commentator GM Krikor Mekhitarian pointed out that this was only number 6,963 of his all-time best scores.

Keep in mind that this includes other instances he's scored the same 55 points. He's solved 42,336 in total at the time of writing this article.

Top 20 After Round 1

The top two players qualified directly for the Knockout, while the bottom three would be eliminated in subsequent rounds. 

Naroditsky solved this puzzle (number 53) almost instantly. How do you fare, and how quickly can you solve it? Black to move.

GM Jeffery Xiong got the following one (number 57) wrong at the end of his run, and both titled commentators were stumped as well. Can you find the answer? Black to move.

Woodward and Taher, who just barely surpassed Robson, moved on to the Knockout, while the bottom three players were eliminated. This means 15 players remained in the field. 

Standings After Round 2

The same process continued as the 20 players were whittled down to 10 by the last round. The top two qualified, while the bottom three were eliminated. 

Another player who came close, but ultimately didn't make the cut, was GM Oleksandr Bortnytk, a frequent participant in Chess.com's Community Championships and other prize events. He wasn't eliminated until much later, at the end of round four. 

At the end of a Rush in this round, he wasn't able to get the solution to this one. Can you? Black to move. 

Indian GMs Raunak and Pranav shined brightest in round three and advanced to the Knockout, while there were two notable surprises lower in the scoreboard. Robson still hadn't qualified for the Knockout and FM Dimitrios Ladopoulos, a four-time finalist, was eliminated.

Standings After Round 3

Robson finally qualified in round four, along with 17-year-old IM Putnam.

In one of his Rushes, Robson solved the following puzzle to reach 57 points (though 58 would be his best score). Black is a rook down, but he's winning if he finds the one correct sequence. Can you? Black to move.

Naroditsky nearly reached his personal best of 58, which would have placed him into contention to make it to the Knockout, but he missed the following puzzle, making his last mistake with seven seconds left. Can you do better? Black to move.

Putnam did make the high score of 58, however, to advance with Robson. GMs Bortnyk and Ihor Samunenkov, as well as NM Alan H Morris-Suzuki, bid adieu.

Standings After Round 4

That left us with the final round, where the last two players qualified for the Knockout: Naroditsky, with a score of 58, and Atasanov, with 60.

Although Atasanov's high 60 score is incredible, the story of the round had to be Naroditsky's as he qualified in the very final seconds. Despite, or because of, the pressure he managed to score his personal best of 58. 

Danya, in his very last run, qualifies for the Knockout by scoring his personal best of 58!#PuzzleChamps pic.twitter.com/dwYlnNWwKd

— chess24 (@chess24com) January 16, 2025

Naroditsky joined for an interview afterward and reflected on that clutch moment: "The script says I'm supposed to say I was nervous, but the reality was I think that's why I was able to succeed." He said he wanted to do well, but that this "wasn't life or death" either, and his mentality helped him pull through.

The script says I'm supposed to say I was nervous, but the reality was I think that's why I was able to succeed.

—Daniel Naroditsky

Results After Round 5

It was very close, but GMs Xiong, Christopher Yoo, and Andrew Hong were left out.

Naroditsky explained that one strategic goal is to reach 50 with no mistakes so that you have that "cushion" to get some wrong in the end.

As for his match against an in-form Woodward on Friday, he admits that the youngster's personal best is better than his. But "I think that tomorrow's about consistency, it's about avoiding the really bad runs, and it's about avoiding tilt." Players will compete in best-of-eight matches of Puzzle Battle, so achieving the highest score won't mean everything; it's about achieving high scores several times.

Commentator NM Sam Copeland set the stage for what we may expect in tomorrow's Knockout: "The whole field just feels extremely competitive. I think the gap between Ray and these other players has definitely narrowed over the last year, maybe the last two years, and it's going to be really exciting to see who's able to come out on top tomorrow."

I think the gap between Ray and these other players has definitely narrowed over the last year, maybe the last two years...

—Sam Copeland

Previous coverage:

• It's Tactics Time! The Chess.com Puzzles Championship Starts On January 16
• Chess.com Community Championships 2025 Cycle Kicks Off January And Features 12 Events