If you’ve been keeping up with junior chess in recent times, you’ve almost certainly heard of Xeniya Balabayeva. And if not, well, you’d better get on that. The 19-year-old Kazakh just won the World Junior Rapid Championship 2025 with 7.5 out of 9 points, half a point clear of some very stiff competition, including Uzbekistan’s Afruza Khamdamova and Varvara Poliakova.
What is even more awesome about this victory is that it was not her first world title. She had won the World Junior Blitz Championship earlier in 2023. Now she has rapid and blitz titles under her belt. Evidently, she knows her way around fast chess.
A Quick Look at Her Journey
Xeniya’s success didn’t come overnight. She’s been climbing step by step with the track record given below:
- 2018 – Won the Western Asia Youth Championship (Girls U14).
- 2019 – Won the Asian Youth Rapid Championship (U14).
- 2020 – Scored a perfect 9/9 in the Kazakhstan U16. Perfect. Not a single slip.
- 2021 – Took gold in the Asia Youth U16, silver in the Kazakhstan U20, and became the Online World Youth Champion (U16 Girls).
- 2022 & 2024 – Played for Kazakhstan at the Chess Olympiads, with a team silver medal in 2024.
- 2024 – Officially earned the Woman Grandmaster (WGM) title.
Now, in 2025, she’s added the World Junior Rapid trophy to her collection. Her current FIDE rating sits at 2383, her career peak so far.
The Game Everyone’s Talking About
It wasn’t easy for her since she had actually lost in round 2 but then she really showed magic with 5 straight wins back-to-back that made her stand out in this competition. The best game was when she recovered after the lost game, that was round 3 where she played against Claudia Micaela.
Xeniya playing with white, started with the Queen Pawn Game d4 and Claudia responded with the Indian Défense Nf6 that later turned into Indian Défense London System.
Throughout the game, Xeniya had a good advantage until on move 33 Claudia made a blunder with Na3,
leaving the key squares unguarded with her king exposed to mate in one and Xeniya easily finds it on the next move.
With this win, Xeniya walks away with the title, prize money, and a big confidence boost. She’s already a WGM, she’s already a double world champion in fast formats… the next stop has to be breaking into the very top tier of women’s chess.
Wrapping Up
Xeniya Balabayeva’s tale is a testament to how much persistence and the right mentorship can bear. From young competitions to the global stage, she has constructed her journey one step at a time, and now she’s seeing the fruits of it.
And if you’re a young player (or a parent of one), this is just the sort of motivation to hold onto. Here at The New England Chess School, we believe in developing champions the same way – with the right training, the right tournaments, and expert instruction. If you want to take chess seriously, or even just advance your game a notch, come and join us. Who knows, maybe the next big story we’ll be talking about could be yours.