GM
Denis Lazavik
is approaching 2650 after winning the
2026 KazChess Masters
with an unbeaten 6.5/9, half a point ahead of the only other unbeaten player, GM
Daniil Dubov
. It was also a memorable tournament for 14-year-old IM
Mark Smirnov
, who beat all four of his fellow Kazakh players to finish fourth, gaining 25.9 rating points and scoring his second GM norm.
The KazChess Masters took place from October 26 to November 3 at Coventry University in Kazakhstan in Almaty, pitting five local players against international rivals.
The closing ceremony. Photo: KazChess.
KazChess Masters Final Standings
Nineteen-year-old Lazavik is already a star in online chess. This year alone, he beat GM
Hikaru Nakamura
13.5-12.5 to finish
third in the Speed Chess Championship
, and then beat the world number-two again 3.5-1.5 to reach the final of the
2026 Esports World Cup
. On both occasions GM
Magnus Carlsen
was the undefeatable final boss, but
Lazavik took home a cool $190,000
as runner-up in Paris. Lazavik has also qualified for the next Speed Chess Championship, which has
just been announced and starts November 16
.
In over-the-board chess, however, the youngster's progress has been much slower. Until August 2025 he was still rated below 2600, and comments about GM
Abhimanyu Mishra
, taken somewhat out of context, also of course applied to himself.
"Mishra doesn't have support? He should have played better. With 2630 at 17, no one needs you in the modern world" — Denis Lazavik
https://t.co/KWatBjlY8c
#chess #news
https://t.co/xEk8RbPDFY
— Rook Review (
@Rookreviewcom
)
September 17, 2026
Talking to
Greg Mustreader
in a
podcast
, Lazavik noted he needs to improve his openings and calculation in complex positions, but he also added another factor:
First of all, I don’t really like classical chess. You have to spend a lot of time, travel somewhere, and find the right tournaments that pay the money. Often it’s well, so-so, especially compared to rapid chess, and well, if it’s just for the rating, then I don’t really have the energy yet.
Nevertheless, Lazavik has been on the rise, with his last loss in a classical game coming over a year ago on August 12, 2025. It was hard to forget, since in round 11 of the
Turkish Super League
he faced the
Chess.com 2025 Move of the Year
,
37...Qf2+!!
from GM
Ediz Gurel
.
Lazavik still ended that tournament by gaining five rating points, then went on to win the
Abu Dhabi Masters 2025
, gain 15 points, and cross 2600 for the first time on the September 2025 rating list.
In 2026 he won the
23rd Karpov International
(+16), then gained another 15 points in the
2026 FIDE Chess Olympiad
, where he scored wins over GMs
Jan-Krzysztof Duda
and
Nikita Vitiugov
. The latest win, in Kazakhstan, gained him another 12 points and has taken him to world number-72 and 2647.8 on the overall
live rating list
, and eighth place on the
junior live rating list
.
In Almaty, he scored four wins and no losses.
Lazavik
said afterward
: "I considered myself one of the tournament favorites, as I had performed well in previous competitions and hoped to keep that momentum going. Of course, there were challenges, but overall I played well and didn’t lose a single game."
Denis Lazavik is quietly climbing the official rating list. Photo: KazChess.
He got off to a fast start, beating the top seed GM
Mahammad Muradli
in the first round. The three-time Azerbaijan champion had fought his way back to a defendable position before he was tempted to try and grab some pawns with his bishop—it led only to swift disaster.
That win saw GM
Wesley So
tweet
, "Denis the Menace slowly but surely going for Hikaru's World #2 spot 1 game at a time," referring to
disparaging comments
about Nakamura that Lazavik later stated had been a joke.
That was followed in round four by a crushing kingside attack against two-time Uzbek Olympiad winner GM
Shamsiddin Vokhidov
, who was in trouble when his
20...b5?
allowed
21.f4!
.
Wins against IMs
Alua Nurman
and
Sauat Nurgaliyev
wrapped up the victory, and a 7 million KZT (~15.5k USD) first prize in a tournament where Lazavik was never in any serious trouble.
It was a tough event for Alua Nurman, who made two draws in nine rounds. Photo: KazChess.
Dubov, the "veteran" in the tournament at the age of 30, took the 5 million KZT (~11k USD) second prize after also going unbeaten but scoring a win less, while Vokhidov took third and 3.5 million KZT (~8k USD).
Daniil Dubov beat Mark Smirnov in round one. Photo: KazChess.
While Dubov was the oldest player in a field with five teenagers, the youngest, 14-year-old Smirnov, took fourth place with a GM norm, only losing out to Vokhidov on tiebreaks.
Smirnov, who has previously won World Under-12 and 14 Championships, gained 25.9 points to move to 2464.9 on the live rating list, leaving him 35 points and one last GM norm away from the title. He described himself as "very pleased" with his performance, but added: "Perhaps I could have performed even better. I didn’t play very well at the start of the tournament and only found my rhythm toward the middle. If I had started playing better right away, I might have finished higher."
He described his "toughest game" as the 70-move win over 16-year-old GM
Edgar Mamedov
, who himself two years ago became Kazakhstan's youngest grandmaster at the age of 14. Smirnov let a winning position slip, but got back on track, with
55...d2!
a nice winning touch near the end.
Mark Smirnov is a new star of Kazakh chess. Photo: KazChess.
The most visually appealing move came in the final round, however, when Smirnov put two-time Kazakh Champion GM
Denis Makhnev
to the sword with a rook sacrifice.
Lazavik commented on Smirnov's performance: "It’s especially great that a 14-year-old player earned a grandmaster norm. That is a very serious result. I know that chess receives great support in Kazakhstan, and there are many promising and talented players here."
Will Kazakhstan grow to rival the new chess superpowers of India and Uzbekistan in the coming years?