The Week in Chess

1. FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2025 - Games and Results

   The FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament took place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan Thu 4th Sep to Mon 15th Sep 2025.

   Players Open: Praggnanandhaa, Erigaisi, Gukesh, Firouzja, Keymer, Abdusattorov, Giri, Aronian, Nepomniachtchi, Mamedyarov, MVL, Niemann etc.

   Players Women: Muzychuk, Tan, Assaubayeva, Lagno etc play in the women's even which has suffered a number of withdrawals.

   Two players from each event qualified for the relevant Candidates tournaments.

   Anish Giri took clear first place in the open section with 8/11 and Matthias Bluebaum finished second on tie-break from Alireza Firouzja and Vincent Keymer. Rameshbabu Vaishali won the women's event on tie-break from Kateryna Lagno after they finished on 8/11 and secured their Women's Candidates places.

2. Giri and Vaishali win the Grand Swisses, Bluebaum and Lagno scoop up the additional Candidates places - 11

   The FIDE Grand Swiss finished today with a very tense final round in the Open tournament. The women's tournament was a little more cut and dried, Kateryna Lagno and Rameshbabu Vaishali knew that they only required draws to qualify for the Women's Candidates and Lagno got her draw fairly quickly with the white pieces but Vaishali only had to work a little harder with black to get her spot and indeed win the event.

   The Open situation was a lot more complicated. There was no provision for tie-break matches, just a technical tie-break, the first and only one that counted this time was Average Rating of Opponents Cut 1 (ARO-C1).

3. Maghsoodloo leads the FIDE Grand Swiss alone after five rounds - 5

   The FIDE Grand Swiss (my game and results page is here) is being led by Iranian number one Parham Maghsoodloo. He is rated 37 in the world at 2692, so far he has beaten Chopra Aryan, David Anton, former countryman Alireza Firouzja and in round 5 he beat Richard Rapport, his only draw came in round 4 against Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Round 5 saw the top 5 boards all finish decisively.

   Maghsoodloo leads with 4.5/5 half a point clear of 16 year old Abhimanyu Mishra, who beat Gukesh in Round 5, Marc'andria Maurizzi (beat Vincent Keymer), Arjun Erigaisi (beat Nikita Vitiugov) and Matthias Bluebaum (who beat Praggnanandhaa)

   The event so far has been extremely hard fought with many long games, fatigue is bound to be a factor. The sixth round of eleven is today, followed by a rest day.

4. Chess.com make changes to Titled Tuesday, announce "Take Take Take" agreement, and EWC qualification process -

   The Titled Tuesday Blitz for the 26th August was the last under the current format. This Chess.com event has run since 2014 and has had an early and late section since 2022.

   From the 2nd September there will be just one Titled Tuesday Blitz each week, it will take place at 11am Eastern Standard Time, 17:00 Central European Time and 20:30 Indian time.

   Other changes include a move to five minutes per game and a weekly live show produced by the chess app "Take Take Take".

   Titled Tuesday will be part of Chess.com's qualification process for the Esports World Cup (EWC) which will take place in Riddah next summer. The not unreasonable bet is that this event will continue to grow in importance, hence the changes now.

5. Wesley So wins the Sinquefield Cup after a playoff - 9

   The Sinquefield Cup was won by Wesley So for a second time, he won first of all in 2016. So was the only winner in the final round when he defeated the woefully out of form Nodirbek Abdusattorov. So then won a blitz tie-break by beating Praggnanandhaa and drawing with Fabiano Caruana. So won $77,667 and Praggnanandhaa and Caruana $67,667.

   The result of this event settled who made the Grand Chess Tour finals next month in Sao Paulo. Those qualifiers were MVL, Caruana, Levon Aronian and Praggnanandhaa, the latter displacing Alireza Firouzja from the top four as a result of this tournament.

6. 12th Sinquefield Cup 2025 - Games and Results

   The 12th Sinquefield Cup took place in Saint Louis, Mon 18th to Fri 29th Aug 2025. Players: Fabiano Caruana, Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Alireza Firouzja, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Samuel Sevian.

   The Sinquefield Cup was won by Wesely So after a blitz tie-break round robin where Praggnanandhaa finished second and Fabiano Caruana finished third. The players shared the prize money. The result of this event settled who made the Grand Chess Tour finals next month in Sao Paulo. Those qualifiers were MVL, Caruana, Levon Aronian and Praggnanandhaa, the latter displacing Alireza Firouzja from the top four.

7. Titled Tuesday Blitz 26th August 2025 - Games and Results

   The Titled Tuesday Blitz 26th August was the last in this format with major changes coming next week. Tuan Minh Le was the winner of the early with 10.5/11 a point and a half clear of the field, Carlsen finished a further point and a half back on 8.5 points. Aleksei Sarana won the late with 9.5/11 half a point clear of Arjun Erigaisi, Dmitry Andreikin, Magnus Carlsen and Oleksandr Bortnyk, somewhat surprisingly Fabiano Caruana also played after his early finish in the Sinquefield Cup and he was half a point further back. The games are available for download but the files are too large to be displayed.

8. Abdusattorov beats Firouzja in Round 8 of the Sinquefield Cup - 8

   The eighth round of the Sinquefield Cup only had one decisive result when Nodirbek Abdusattorov beat Alireza Firouzja taking advantage of some rather loose play. Gukesh pressed for a long time against Levon Aronian and missed a hard win but then a late blunder should in return have cost him the game but Aronian missed his chance. MVL-Caruana, Sevian-Duda and Praggnanandhaa-So were all drawn meaning that Caruana and Praggnanandhaa share the lead on 5/8 half a point clear of Aronian and So.

   Final Round 9 pairings: Duda-MV:, Caruana-Gukesh, Aronian-Praggnanandhaa, So-Abdusattorov and Firouzja-Sevian.