Lichess Coverage
Lichess will produce in-depth blog posts with annotations for each round of the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss. WIM Silvia Raluca Sgîrcea will annotate the games from the Women’s Grand Swiss and GM Renier Castellanos Rodriguez will annotate the games from the Open Grand Swiss. Lichess will also create videos for each round of the tournament, with interviews and other types of content. Keep an eye on our socials for the videos!
Annotations by GM Renier Castellanos Rodriguez
https://lichess.org/study/4kgBurog/QQCbCHqq#0
Annotations by WIM Silvia Raluca Sgîrcea
https://lichess.org/study/4kgBurog/FqHcJD3L#0
Open Overview
On the top 10 boards, there were 5 decisive results, with GM Alireza Firouzja, GM Parham Maghsoodloo, GM Anton Demchenko, GM Praggnanandhaa R, and GM Arjun Erigaisi winning against GM Maxim Rodshtein, GM David Anton Guijarro, GM Sam Shankland, GM Ivan Zemlyanskii, and GM Haik M. Martirosyan, respectively. The world champion, GM Gukesh D, was held to a draw by 14-year-old GM Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş after the former was winning for most of the game.
The Top 10 Boards
Just as in the previous round, GM Alireza Firouzja showed his endgame prowess, making amazing use of his bishop pair against GM Maxim Rodshtein. Before that point, the game was a highly complicated queenless middlegame arising out of a Catalan-esque opening. Firouzja was able to break in the center early on and gain a sizeable advantage, converting without too many issues.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/UnZivDF9/d1oHvx4m#0
GM Alireza Firouzja vs. GM Maxim Rodshtein
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE
GM Parham Maghsoodloo played with machine-like precision against GM David Anton Guijarro. Both players decided to play a rare line of the English Opening, where a novel position was reached as early as move 8. Maghsoodloo’s advantage seemed symbolic at first, but it quickly snowballed as Guijarro could not find the correct setup for his pieces, allowing White to apply pressure on the queenside pawns. With an aesthetically pleasing king lift, Maghsoodloo was able to force Black to resign as Guijarro was losing material. We interviewed Parham Maghsoodloo after the game:
https://lichess.org/study/embed/UnZivDF9/4w69XFGh#0
GM Parham Maghsoodloo vs. GM David Anton Guijarro
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE
GM Anton Demchenko showed tremendous fighting spirit today. On the White side of the Sicilian Defense, Najdorf Variation, Demchenko was in severe time trouble and decided to keep the game going, knowing full well that he was winning against GM Sam Shankland. The position was incredibly sharp, and Demchenko’s 31. e5 was an important move, blocking off the long diagonal. Eventually, Demchenko converted his attack into a material advantage, and won a nice, flashy game.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/UnZivDF9/UE4C6MaJ#0
GM Anton Demchenko vs. GM Sam Shankland
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE
20-year-old GM Praggnanandhaa R was a rising prodigy just a few years ago, but, in today’s encounter, he was the veteran and GM Ivan Zemlyanskii was the up-and-comer. In another rare English Opening line, Zemlyanskii did well to navigate the complications, with equality being the name of the game for a large portion of the battle. However, Praggnanandhaa did have the bishop pair advantage, and after some inaccuracies by Zemlyanskii, Praggnanandhaa was able to fork Zemlyanskii’s rook and knight.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/UnZivDF9/ikn1HKm1#0
GM Arjun Erigaisi’s opening choice today not only showed how ambitious Arjun is, but also showed that he is not afraid to play rarer openings at the top level, such as today’s King’s Indian Defense, to surprise his opponents. Arjun’s strategy almost backfired as GM Haik M. Martirosyan had a large, basically winning, advantage, at some point, but Martirosyan’s moves were hard to find and the middlegame position was highly complex. Arjun eventually triumphed as he outcalculated his opponent when it mattered most and converted a piece-up position.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/UnZivDF9/zRNA4qBU#0
GM Arjun Erigaisi vs. GM Haik M. Martirosyan
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE
In another battle between young luminaries, the world champion, GM Gukesh D, was held to a draw by 14-year-old GM Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş. Gukesh was in fact winning for a large portion of the game, but Erdoğmuş was able to keep the game complicated, and Gukesh eventually went for a wrong decision in time trouble. On move 42, Erdoğmuş even had the chance to play on with 42…Rg8, but he instead forced a draw with 42…Rxf6.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/UnZivDF9/PZNvWxbu#0
GM Gukesh D vs. Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE
GM Frederik Svane vs. GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov on board 3 and GM Aydin Suleymanli vs. GM Boris Gelfand on board 8 saw very quiet and correct draws, even though the games looked to be rather exciting and imbalanced at some points. Meanwhile, on board 4, GM Anish Giri had an advantage at numerous junctures against GM A. R. Salem Saleh, but ultimately could not convert, while the same could be said for GM Abhimanyu Puranik vs. GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi on board 5.
Notable Games
GM Vincent Keymer was pressing for a long while against GM Jeffery Xiong, but it was not until move 45 when his efforts bore fruit as Xiong blundered with 45…f5??, allowing White a winning endgame courtesy of a skewer tactic.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/UnZivDF9/D5od69a4#0
GM Ian Nepomniachtchi castled long in a well-known line in the Slav Defense, signaling to his young opponent, GM Ediz Gürel, that he was looking for a fight. On move 20, Gürel could have delayed castling a bit, or foregone it altogether, but he decided to go into the fire and creatively sacrificed a piece to generate counterplay. Nepomniachtchi was on top of it all, however, and converted rather precisely, but not without one inaccuracy on move 31. See what Ian Nepomniachtchi had to say about the game in our interview:
https://lichess.org/study/embed/UnZivDF9/dzWi4Lt3#61
GM Ian Nepomniachtchi vs. GM Ediz Gürel
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE
GM Yu Yangyi played the longest game of the tournament so far, taking down GM Sanan Sjugirov after almost seven hours of play.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/UnZivDF9/pXmOX7EZ#0
As usual, the ever creative GM Richard Rapport went off the beaten path and played a rare opening against GM Daniel Dardha, where Rapport maintained a symbolic advantage for much of the game, but Dardha found precise defensive moves. In an imbalanced endgame, though, Rapport’s rook proved to be too tricky, and Dardha’s knight dropped off abruptly, costing him the game.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/UnZivDF9/HLtRCZ9y#0
Flashy Games
GM Nihal Sarin has in recent history become the world’s leading expert in exchange sacrifices. It was surprising just how quickly GM Aram Hakobyan’s position unraveled, even though he was objectively better at some point.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/UnZivDF9/XU5cgpHF#0
Women’s Overview
GM Vaishali Rameshbabu won a miniature against IM Eline Roebers, while IM Olga Badelka won an opposite-colored bishop middlegame against WGM Zsoka Gaal. GM Kateryna Lagno played a model game on the White side of a Sicilian Defense against WIM Umida Omonova, while IM Vantika Agrawal had GM Bibisara Assaubayeva on the ropes, but blundered in a would-be winning endgame.
The Top 10 Boards
GM Vaishali Rameshbabu won a miniature today against IM Eline Roebers, in what was an opening disaster for the latter. Roebers and Vaishali played the Ruy Lopez, one of the — if not the — chess world’s most famous and well-analyzed openings; however, with 7. Nxd4, the position was already rather rare, having been played only once before. With 10. f4, Roebers went for the wrong plan, though, and was completely lost shortly thereafter.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/coXhoCAD/9cMkStmB#0
GM Vaishali Rameshbabu vs. GM Eline Roebers
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE
The Catalan Opening is usually a solid opening, and the game between WGM Zsoka Gaal and IM Olga Badelka was a rather calm affair for the most part. However, with opposite-colored bishops and all major pieces on the board, the position favored the attacker, which, in this case, was Badelka. Gaal soon found her pieces misplaced, and Badelka won soon enough, but not before allowing once chance for Gaal to come back into the game on move 29.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/coXhoCAD/gLyakaa7#0
WGM Zsoka Gaal vs. IM Olga Badelka
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE
GM Kateryna Lagno played a model game in the Sicilian Defense, Four Knights (with e6), which actually transposed to a Najdorf-esque position rather quickly after Lagno played 6. a3. WIM Umida Omonova, who played a very nice game herself in round 1, simply could not find enough counterplay.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/coXhoCAD/BJh5d2ya#0
GM Kateryna Lagno vs. WIM Umida Omonova
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE
IM Vantika Agrawal was very close to starting off with 2 wins, but she misplayed the later parts of a bishop vs. knight endgame, which she had been playing impressively well, and allowed GM Bibiara Assaubayeva to escape.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/coXhoCAD/gvI3Z4zI#0
In a similar turn of events, IM Dinara Wagner’s game in the Queen’s Indian Defense against WGM Zhai Mo was nerve-racking, but even more so than the previous game as both sides were winning at several points.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/coXhoCAD/6E9WZaAP#0
Another topsy-turvy game was WGM Govhar Beydullayeva’s game against GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, which saw similar pendulum swings to the previous game, but at a much more compact number of moves.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/coXhoCAD/TwycJoEn#0
IM Meruert Kamalidenova missed a couple of chances to press for more against IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva, but, ultimately, the improvements were not so easy to spot.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/coXhoCAD/zCKVaDx3#0
The calm draws of the round included the board 3 encounter between WIM Afruza Khamdamova and WGM Xeniya Balabayeva, the board 6 clash between WGM Maili-Jade Ouellet and GM Olga Girya, and the board 10 face-off between GM Harika Dronavalli and IM Nurgyul Salimova.
Notable Games
In a complicated line of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, which was reminiscent of certain Semi-Slav positions, IM Song Yuxin was able to win a hard-fought endgame against IM Klaudia Kulon.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/coXhoCAD/JkoNngkN#0
WGM Shrook Wafa was worse for a large portion of her game against GM Elina Danielian, but she defended tenaciously and kept the game complicated, eventually finding a way to equalize and even win.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/coXhoCAD/SNJe8okX#0
Flashy Games
WIM Guldona Karimova created a scintillating attacking victory as she faced IM Lela Javakhishvili’s Modern Defense.
https://lichess.org/study/embed/coXhoCAD/rIrf0gM8#0
Pairings for Round 3 (Top 10 Boards)
Open:
| White | Black |
|---|---|
| GM Alireza Firouzja | GM Parham Maghsoodloo |
| GM Arjun Erigaisi | GM Anton Demchenko |
| GM Boris Gelfand | GM Praggnanandhaa R |
| GM Daniil Yuffa | GM Gukesh D |
| GM Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş | GM Vincent Keymer |
| GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov | GM Abhimanyu Puranik |
| GM Anish Giri | GM Frederik Svane |
| GM A. R. Salem Saleh | GM Ian Nepomniachtchi |
| GM Leon Luke Mendonca | GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave |
| GM Abhimanyu Mishra | GM Yu Yangyi |
Women’s:
| White | Black |
|---|---|
| GM Vaishali Rameshbabu | IM Olga Badelka |
| GM Bibisara Assaubayeva | IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva |
| WGM Xeniya Balabayeva | GM Kateryna Lagno |
| IM Song Yuxin | IM Vantika Agrawal |
| WGM Zhai Mo | WIM Afruza Khamdamova |
| IM Meruert Kamalidenova | IM Dinara Wagner |
| GM Antoaneta Stefanova | WGM Maili-Jade Ouellet |
| GM Olga Girya | WIM Guldona Karimova |
| GM Mariya Muzychuk | WGM Shrook Wafa |
| IM Lilit Mkrtchian | GM Tan Zhongyi |