Mustafa Yılmaz (chess player)

Mustafa Yılmaz is a Turkish chess grandmaster born on November 5, 1992. Three-time Turkish champion Yılmaz became one of the strongest players in Türkiye with his performance in international tournaments in 2023.

He started playing chess at the age of seven. He rose rapidly in his youth and was selected for the national team in 2008 and represented Türkiye in the Chess Olympiad held in Dresden. He completed the final qualification for the grandmaster title at the Bosnian Open in Sarajevo in May 2012; His title became official the same year and he became the eighth grandmaster of Türkiye.

National and international achievements

He won the Turkish Chess Championship in 2009, 2017 and 2022. In 2022, he drew with Ediz Gürel in the final of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Cup in the classical games, and won the cup by winning a fight that lasted 135 moves in the tiebreaker games. He entered the last round of the 2020 Gibraltar Open Tournament sharing the leadership and collected the same points as the champion.

2023 has been the most productive year of his career. He finished second at the Tata Steel Challengers in Wijk aan Zee with 9 points from 13 games. In the same year, he advanced to the third round of the World Cup, where he was eliminated by Fabiano Caruana in rapid play. Then, with good results in the European Club Cup and the FIDE Grand Swiss (6.5 points from 11 games in the Grand Swiss), he brought his rating to a career high. He also advanced to the third round of the 2025 World Cup.

Yılmaz continues to participate in tournaments as one of the experienced players of the Turkish national team for a long time.