Nihal, Sargsyan Grab Final Spots In Chess.com Open Playoffs

India’s GM Nihal Sarin was the only unbeaten player as he won the final Play-In of the 2026 Chess.com Open and made what he joked was “a very tough choice” to play GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and not GM Magnus Carlsen in the Playoffs. The player who faces Carlsen is 24-year-old Armenian GM Shant Sargsyan, who won an armageddon decider against French IM Marco Materia. The 17-year-old had stunned GM Wesley So in the final round, while GMs Levon Aronian and Volodar Murzin were unlucky to miss out on tiebreaks.  

The Playoffs to decide the Chess.com Open champion and Esports World Cup qualifiers will be held on April 23-26.

Once again the format for the Play-In was a nine-round Open, where only the winner would qualify automatically, while the second and third-placed players would compete in a two-game mini-match for the second spot.

It couldn’t have been closer at the finish, with five players tied on 7/9.

Chess.com Open Play-In 4 Final Standings 

See full standings.

We now know the full lineup for the double-elimination knockout that will decide the $50,000 winner of the Chess.com Open when battle recommences in a month’s time.

Chess.com Open Playoffs Bracket

Nihal played in all four Play-Ins, and described how the first three had gone:

It was extremely tough! The first two, especially the second, was quite disastrous, obviously. The third one, the games were not good, but the result was a bit better. I also finished on 7/9, but my tiebreaks were quite bad. Honestly, I did not deserve to finish third at all!

For the final event, however, the Indian speed demon decided to slow down a bit:

Today the quality was much better. I’m much happier with the quality. I played a bit more safe, a bit more objective. I tried not to go all-out like in blitz!  

I tried not to go all-out like in blitz!

—Nihal Sarin

The new approach worked to perfection.

In round five Nihal took down GM Yahli Sokolovsky, who had been the sole leader on 4/4, while he took the sole lead himself with a win over GM Nodirbek Yakubboev in round seven. Nihal went under a minute when he played 35…Qf4, provoking a mistake.

After reaching 6/7 Nihal could afford to cruise home, comfortably drawing against GM Vidit Gujrathi in the penultimate round and then making a rapid-fire 18-move draw against Sargsyan in the final round. “With a draw I thought there’s a good chance I might win or at least guarantee a finish in the top three,” said Nihal, and his calculation had been sound. All that was left was to pick his opponent for the Round of 16, either Carlsen or Vachier-Lagrave:

I don’t think I need to say… This is of course a very tough choice, but I guess, Maxime would be the obvious pick. Of course he’s a complete beast, but the other option is even worse!

Of course he’s a complete beast, but the other option is even worse!

—Nihal Sarin on picking Maxime Vachier-Lagrave over Magnus Carlsen

There were many beasts for whom this was the end of the road as far as the Chess.com Open goes. GM Fabiano Caruana, after some very near misses, didn’t play in the final Play-In—GM Matthias Bluebaum and GM Anna Muzychuk, GM Koneru Humpy’s last-minute replacement, flew the flag for the Candidates Tournament.

GM Hans Niemann had some bright moments, but two tough defeats ended his challenge.

“That is such a tilting result!” says Aman Hambleton after Hans Niemann walks into a killer blow from Nodirbek Yakubboev just when he seemed to have the winning chances based on the clock! https://t.co/OIn4cKrACR pic.twitter.com/7McrmmHLId

— chess24 (@chess24com) March 25, 2026

GM Levon Aronian lit up the tournament, starting with three moves our system gave as brilliancies coming in short succession against GM Leon Luke Mendonca in the very first round.

As you can see, Aronian eventually needed the clock to win that game, after briefly being dead-lost at the finish. It was a case of living and dying by the sword, as the opposite scenario played out later against Vidit—at the end of a game the Indian star had dominated, Aronian found himself in a winning position, but he ran out of time.

Aronian defended a bad position so well he was winning at the end, but Vidit picked up the full point on time! https://t.co/BhZtjWMEf4 pic.twitter.com/uW5gu43cim

— chess24 (@chess24com) March 25, 2026

That loss proved costly as Aronian would later miss out on tiebreaks.

Meanwhile another U.S. star, So, had reached but lost the mini-match in both the first and second Play-Ins, and he was very close to reaching a third. In the final round he needed to win, and that looked very possible against a young international master. We mentioned in our previous report that Materia had needed to play the 2nd Titled Qualifier to be able to take part, and had then beaten five GMs to score 5.5/8 despite missing round one!

What we didn’t realize at the time was that he was celebrating his 17th birthday, and in Play-In 4 he performed even better—coming into the final round on 6/8 after beating three GMs in four rounds. He faced his toughest challenge of the day in the final round.

“Marco played unbelievable in the last game,” said the watching Nihal of how Materia’s pressure eventually told against So.

That was the end of the road for the player who had won the previous edition of this event, under the original name of the 2022 Chess.com Global Championship (incidentally beating Nihal in the final!). 

Materia finished second, but it remained to be seen who he would face in the two-game match for the remaining spot in the knockout. At first it seemed that would be 2024 FIDE World Rapid Champion Murzin, who checkmated Vidit in 114 moves in the final round.

When byes were added to the results, however, it turned out it was a dark horse, former U16 World Youth Chess Champion Sargsyan, who took third place after a four-game winning streak was followed by that risky last-round draw against Nihal.

After so much drama, the two 10-minute games were relatively quiet draws, with Sargsyan perhaps having the more promising chance in the first game.

That meant armageddon, and it was Materia who won the right to play Black and need only a draw, after he bid seven minutes, while Sargsyan picked seven minutes and 25 seconds. Sargsyan started with 10 minutes and had to win, which he did, largely down to the idea 23.g5!. 

White sacrifices a pawn to gain the e5-square, and one bad choice in what followed left Black doomed. Sargsyan confidently went on to win the match and tournament.

For Sargsyan there was no choice—the only remaining opponent for the final stage of the Chess.com Open was the world number-one, Carlsen. That will be quite a challenge for the Armenian, but the good news is that a loss wouldn’t be terminal, as every player will have two lives in the tournament. 

The Chess.com Open Playoffs start on April 23rd. 

How To Watch

The Chess.com Open, taking place online from March 14 to April 26, is the world’s biggest open chess event. The tournament features open qualifiers, titled qualifiers, and Play-Ins that funnel into a 16-player double-elimination knockout. Up to $250,000 in prizes are available, on top of three direct qualification spots to the 2026 Esports World Cup. 

Previous coverage: