Ukrainian chess club GRECO (Kyiv), representing the law firm of the same name, won the FIDE World Corporate Chess Championship 2025, which took place in Goa, India.
According to a statement from the Kyiv Chess Federation, 11 teams representing major international brands, including JP Morgan, Deloitte, Microsoft, and Google, took part in the final tournament.
It is noted that the victory was won by the GRECO team, which the organizers describe as a relatively small business compared to global corporations, but a well-known club in the chess community: its professional teams have repeatedly won various club tournaments. Just a week before the start in Goa, GRECO won the European Corporate Team Championship.
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) website published a review article titled “GRECO recognized as the smartest company in the world” following the competition. The Federation explains that this conclusion is based on the logic that “if chess is a game for smart people, then the winner of the corporate world championship is the smartest company.”
“This year, we won two major corporate titles – world and European champions. This is a historic achievement and further confirmation that Ukraine remains one of the leaders in the chess world,” said GRECO President Pavel Kuftyrev, whose words are quoted in the report. According to him, the company intends to further develop the GRECO chess project and set more ambitious goals for itself.
The “golden” team at the world championship included international grandmaster Vladimir Onischuk and international masters Valery Grinev, Alexey Maly, and Sergey Pavlov. According to the Federation, candidate master Viren Bagiryan and Pavel Kuftirev himself also participated in the qualifying stages for the final.
According to information from the Kiev Chess Federation, at the tournament in Goa, the Ukrainian team not only won team gold, but each of the players also received an individual award on their board: Onischuk, Pavlov, and Maly won gold medals, while Grinev won silver.
The Federation emphasizes that GRECO’s success is important not only for the company’s brand, but also for Ukraine’s image as one of the strongest chess countries in the world, especially in the context of the ongoing war.
