This is a summary of the ChessBase article “A billionaire supports chess talents” by Frederic Friedel (March 9, 2026).
Turkey's chess boom
The article describes how Turkish entrepreneur Evren Ucok is helping to turn Türkiye into a rising chess power, comparable to India's recent boom. It starts with Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş, now 14, who became a grandmaster at 12 and the youngest player ever to reach 2600, and whom Magnus Carlsen has called the best 14-year-old in chess history. Yet he nearly quit chess for lack of funding: elite chess needs tournament travel, top coaches and other expenses that few families can cover.
How the support began
Two years before the article, Ucok, who had reduced his business workload, contacted coach and organizer Selim Gürcan about supporting chess talents worldwide. When Selim told him about Yağız's age and results, he committed on the spot, acting almost like a father figure and promising support for at least five years. That security helped Yağız earn three grandmaster norms in a row and the title. As he progressed, Ucok arranged coaching with Azerbaijani GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who eventually made working with Yağız his main focus and stepped back from his own competitive career.
The “Turkish Immortal”
Last year Yağız played a game that Leonard Barden dubbed the “Turkish Immortal” against India's Aditya Mittal: he let his opponent get a second queen, sacrificed his own queen for a single pawn and delivered mate with a pawn that had never moved. Barden ranked it above Bobby Fischer's 1956 “Game of the Century”. The game was played in round 4 of the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand; the moves below come from the Lichess broadcast.
Beyond one player
Ucok now also sponsors Marc Llari (12, France, World U8 champion in 2022 and French U12 champion in 2025), Atilla Kuru (14, Türkiye), Luca Protopopescu (France, world number one in the U8 and U9 categories), WIM Gulenay Aydın (Türkiye), Brewington Hardaway (the first African-American grandmaster) and Bodhana Sivanandan (the third-highest-rated 8-year-old in history in 2024). According to Selim, Ucok believes chess helps society, particularly against attention problems among children made worse by gaming and short videos. Ucok is co-founder and chairman of Trendyol, Türkiye's first decacorn, and Senior Advisor at Lycian Capital.
Watch: the game explained
The article embeds IM Sagar Shah's video on the game.
Source: Frederic Friedel, ChessBase. Images: ChessBase.
