WFM Alexandra Botez got off to a shaky start in the seventh episode of Kids vs. Stars when she found herself lost in seven moves against her 13-year-old Canadian compatriot WFM Ashley Qian. That game couldn’t be save, but despite serious time trouble, Alexandra went on to hit back with wins against nine-year-old U.S. WCM Abigail Zhou and 12-year-old WCM Larissa Mayorga from Costa Rica. She then clinched a 2.5-1.5 overall victory with a tense draw against another 12-year-old, Kenneth Alba from Mexico.   Â
Simul Results
Kids vs. Stars is a ChessKid series that pits established players against promising young talents. The Kids won the first two editions, but in the last five the stars have struck back, with wins for GM Anish Giri, GM Daniel Naroditsky, GM David Howell, and WFM Anna Cramling. In fact, it was Anna who passed on the poisoned chalice to Alexandra.
Anna: “I & @alexandrabotez played a match yesterday where if I won the match she had to be the next person to play the kids, so if you do another Star vs. Kids Alexandra Botez will be the next person because I beat her & she promised this! Mike, hold her accountable for that!”😅 pic.twitter.com/ymt6vyz4kJ
— chess24 (@chess24com) October 6, 2025
The format is that the star takes on the four kids at the same time, with 65 minutes on the clock and 15 seconds added each move, while the kids each have 15 minutes and 15 seconds a move. Â
How do you approach such a match? Alexandra explained: “Most of my strategy involved showing up, and I’m here, so we’ll see where it goes!”
Most of my strategy involved showing up, and I’m here, so we’ll see where it goes!
—Alexandra Botez
Strategic considerations were confronted by an early disaster, with Alexandra commenting, “Don’t love completely throwing one of the games so early, but it is what it is!”
Alexandra Botez 0-1 Ashley Qian
Alexandra Botez is now a streaming sensation, together with her sister Andrea, with 1.3 million followers on Twitch and almost two million subscribers on YouTube, but she started as a talented Canadian junior who claimed five Canadian girls titles. 13-year-old Ashley Qian is another Canadian star, who can boast podium finishes at the Under 10 Pan American Youth Chess Championship and the North American Youth Chess Championship.
It was the youngster who won this battle, picking up Alexandra’s d-pawn on move seven and then delivering a crushing blow with 8…Ne4!.
Alexandra began to delve deep into her options, but by this stage they were all bad: “First I saw, ‘wow, I just blundered a pawn on d4!’ and then …Ne4 came, and I thought, this is really embarrassing.” Alexandra added, “She still gave me no chances, so that was really good,” and Qian’s play was indeed flawless.
Alexandra had wanted to resign that game earlier but couldn’t find how, and while no such opening disasters took place on the other boards the situation looked perilous for the more experienced player, with moments where the kids had at least a slight edge on all four boards.Â
Alexandra also found herself under a minute with three games still in play, but the situation would ultimately swing in her favor.
Alexandra Botez 1-0 Larissa Mayorga
Chess runs in the family for 12-year-old Larissa Mayorga, whose 16-year-old sister Sofia is the Costa Rican Women’s number-one. Larissa is already a two-time national girls champion and, after an over-ambitious opening from Alexandra, she had chances to take control.
Instead, Botez hit back and could have saved herself a lot of trouble if she’d spotted a forced sequence starting with 26.Bxf5!. Distracted by another game, however, the Canadian missed that opportunity and had to go on and win the game all over again.
That checkmate leveled the score, and soon Botez was able to take the lead.
Alexandra Botez 1-0 Abigail Zhou
Abigail Zhou is only nine years old, but the U.S. star is already the Pan American Girls Champion in the Under 8, Under 9, and Under 10 categories. She emerged from the opening with a good position and could have set the board on fire with a bishop sac that would have led to talk of a Botez gambit, even if the queen sacrifice would be completely sound!Â
Abigail missed that chance and stumbled into trouble, but she’d fought back to a position with equal material before Alexandra correctly switched to threatening checkmate. It worked, and Alexandra no longer had to play on increment on more than one board.
Alexandra Botez ½-½ Kenneth Alba
12-year-old Kenneth Alba from Mexico took bronze in the 2023 North American Under 10 Youth Chess Championship and is rated over 1900 on the FIDE classical, rapid, and blitz rating lists. He engaged in a complex battle with Alexandra, who burned up a lot of time trying to work things out. Here, for instance, moving a rook and allowing Black to take the knight and double pawns was strong.Â
13.Nd2?! wasn’t the best option, and in what followed Kenneth was at no point objectively in trouble, though Alexandra briefly thought she was delivering checkmate.
In fact, only needing a draw to clinch the match, she almost overpressed at the end, finding herself a pawn down and on the defensive. There were ways to stumble into trouble even at the very end, but she held on to clinch the match.
Alexandra commented: “If I lost to the kids I’d be really embarrassed, and that last game I thought I actually threw and maybe should have lost, so I’ll take it. Even though I’m afraid of kids I hoped to win by a bigger margin, but you know what, a win is still a win!”Â
Even though I’m afraid of kids I hoped to win by a bigger margin, but you know what, a win is still a win!
—Alexandra Botez
When IM Jovanka Houska remarked how impressive it had been for Alexandra to stay calm at the end, she responded: “I was not calm! I just stopped calculating and started playing by intuition, so I’m sure I made some mistakes there, but at least we didn’t flag.”
“Honestly, good job for the kids, I’m proud of our young talent!” added Alexandra, before the topic turned to who would be next. Can we persuade Alexandra’s sister Andrea to run the gauntlet? “I would love to have Andrea have such a fun experience like this, so I’m going to tell her about it, she’s just getting back from Europe today. I’m going to be honest, I don’t think it’s going to be an easy conversation, but we’ll see what we can do!”
Alexandra: “I would love to have Andrea have such a fun experience like this!” 😀 pic.twitter.com/xLOBm3GQEu
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 27, 2026
Fingers crossed, and we hope you enjoyed the show!Â
Kids vs. Stars is an event in which the next generation of prodigies challenges established chess players and celebrities. On April 27, WFM Alexandra Botez took on WFM Ashley Qian, WCMÂ Abigail Zhou, WCM Larissa Mayorga, and Kenneth Alba in a clock simul where she had 65+15 and the kids had 15+15, with the winning side being the first to 2.5 points.Â
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