Teen Chess Player Jacorey Bynum: On January 27, 2026, a 19-year-old chess player named Jacorey Bynum from the US defeated the world’s top chess player, Magnus Carlsen, in a fast blitz game. The match was played on a new chess app called Take Take Take. Many people watching could not believe what they saw because Carlsen is known as the best chess player in the world.
Jacorey Bynum was born in 2007 and is still very early in his chess journey. According to his FIDE profile, he is ranked number 327 in the USA and 9560 in the world. On Chess.com, Magnus Carlsen has a very high rating of 2840, while Bynum’s rating is 2175. Because of this big difference, almost no one expected Bynum to win.
A Bold move
NM Jacorey Bynum sacs the queen to checkmate Magnus Carlsen ‼ pic.twitter.com/O17BrzWNks
— Take Take Take (@TakeTakeTakeApp) January 27, 2026
During the game, Bynum made a brave and smart move. He gave up his queen by playing Qh5. Magnus Carlsen accepted the queen with his king which turned out to be a trap. The move opened the board in a way that allowed Bynum to attack. On the very next move, he used his rook to give checkmate and ended the game.
This bold idea helped Bynum win the game against the world number one. The match was part of Chess.com’s Titled Tuesday event and was streamed live with commentary. Right after the checkmate, the commentators shouted in excitement and said:
“Magnus has blundered! Magnus has blundered! Checkmate! That’s Checkmate, what a way to play your first game against the World Champion. Wow! Even Magnus applauds that. That is going to be the best moment of Bynum’s career so far.”
Magnus Carlsen leaned back in his chair and smiled as he watched the young player win.
Magnus Carlsen Reacts
At first, Magnus Carlsen did not fully understand what had happened. After a few seconds, he realized he had been checkmated. He laughed and said:
“Oh my god, I got mated. Oh boy. Good game. Oh boy. You got to be vigilant at least more than this.”
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Later, Carlsen talked about a similar mistake he made not long ago. He remembered another Titled Tuesday game where he also allowed a queen sacrifice. He explained:
“This happened in Title Tuesday a few weeks ago as well against David Anton, where I allowed a queen sack for checkmate, but then he didn’t actually find it.”
