Sixteen-year-old International Master Alice Lee has become the first female player to reach a 3000 rating on Chess.com in bullet chess. She hit 3002 on March 17 after a strong session of online games. This milestone follows her recent victory at the Women's American Cup 2026.
On March 16, Alice Lee began a 43-game bullet session on Chess.com with a rating of 2927, finishing the day at 2996. The next day, March 17, she played two games against the anonymous account GMDragz, peaking at an all-time high of 3002 before logging off. This makes her the first woman to cross the 3000 mark in any time control on the platform—bullet, blitz, or rapid—surpassing the previous bullet threshold of 2950, held by GM Vaishali Rameshbabu at 2948. Only one grandmaster appears in the current top-10 women's bullet ratings, and Chess.com counts only verified titled accounts. In blitz, IM Polina Shuvalova holds the record at 2980 from last month. > I think a lot of factors definitely played into how I was able to break 3000, but a big one was just playing a lot. I think it's like if you throw enough darts at a dartboard. —Alice Lee This achievement came one week after Lee won the Women's American Cup 2026 in St. Louis for the third time, defeating top U.S.-rated IM Carissa Yip in the grand final and earning $49,000. She credited the double-elimination format: > Both because you have the extra life and because it's in a match format means that even if you lose a game, it's possible to come back. Lee, a ChessKid ambassador and host of Alice's Pawn Palace, ranks as the third-highest rated woman in the U.S. behind Yip and GM Irina Krush, and world number four among girls under 20. She and Yip lead contenders for a $100,000 award for the next five U.S. women grandmasters from 2024 to 2029. Lee plans a gap year after high school graduation in two months, from June 2026 to September 2027, to pursue norms and the GM title, with events like the 2026 Chess Olympiad, Cairns Cup, and U.S. Women's Championship on her schedule.
