GMs Magnus Carlsen, Denis Lazavik, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and Nihal Sarin are the last ones standing in the Winners Bracket of the 2026 Chess.com Open Playoffs, after winning two matches on Thursday. In the Losers Bracket, the first four players were eliminated: GMs Shant Sargsyan, Sam Sevian, Arjun Erigaisi, and world championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov.
Day two of the Chess.com Playoffs is on Friday, April 24, starting at 11:15 a.m. ET / 17:15 CEST / 8:45 p.m. IST.
Tournament Stakes & Format
The tournament is a 16-player double-elimination bracket, where every player can lose two matches before they are eliminated. Eight players qualified through the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix Winter Split, and the other eight qualified through four Play-Ins last month.
The time control is the esports standard of 10 minutes with no increment. Each match in the Winners is a best-of-four games, while every match in the Losers is a best-of-two.
More significant than the prize money (which is generous in its own right), the top three finishers will directly qualify for the 2026 Esports World Cup this summer. Carlsen, GM Alireza Firouzja, and Lazavik are the three players who have already qualified, though they are allowed to play in this event as well.
If, for example, Carlsen were to win this event, fourth place would not qualify for the EWC. Instead, the vacant spot would be awarded to the next highest-eligible player on the Champions Chess Tour leaderboard.
Winners Round of 16 & Quarterfinals: Carlsen, Lazavik, Duda, Nihal Advance
Sixteen players have been whittled down to just four after the first day.
Of the four players to finish on top, Carlsen was the only one to win both matches in just three games each. Against Sargsyan, he won the first two games and simply drew the third, with the second game being a dominant display of both attacking and defensive play. First, his initiative led to the win of a piece, and then he shut down any counterplay against his open-looking king.
Carlsen continued to show fine form against GM Vincent Keymer, who himself defeated GM Pranesh M in just three games. The first game featured a full rook sacrifice for a pawn in the rook endgame. Carlsen went on to draw with Black and win again with White to take the match.
Judging by the final scores, Duda showed great form as well. Against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, he lost the first game but went on to win three games in a row. Against GM Sina Movahed in the second match, he drew the first game and then won the two that followed. The last game featured a sparkling piece sacrifice, and he ultimately won with a bishop and three pawns for the exchange.
Lazavik won an incredibly close match against GM Yu Yangyi; after drawing the first three games, Lazavik won the fourth with a sudden queen trap. An easy finale to what had been a protracted struggle.
From there, Lazavik narrowly defeated GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov by winning with the white pieces in an armageddon tiebreak.
Last but not least, Nihal went through GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Daniil Dubov to stay afloat in the Winners Bracket. He won the first two games against Vachier-Lagrave and drew the third to clinch, whereas the match against Dubov started with four draws. There, Nihal won via the armageddon game—and with two rook sacrifices back to back!
Until that second match, Dubov was the biggest story of the day—while, again, playing from his bed.
Is this chess aura? Dubov 3-0’s the recent Candidates winner in nonchalant fashion!! 😆 pic.twitter.com/qLpaPa3kK2
— Chess.com (@chesscom) April 23, 2026
He had just started the tournament with a 3-0 sweep against the Candidates winner Sindarov. All three games were impressive, but the first featured a positional exchange sacrifice on f3—not approved by the engine, but more than sufficient in a rapid game.
GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the Game of the Day below.
In the Winners Semifinals, we will see Carlsen vs. Lazavik and Duda vs. Nihal.
Losers Round 1: Sargsyan, Sevian, Arjun, Sindarov Eliminated
All matches are best-of-two in the Losers Bracket. Eight players remain after the first round of elimination.
Three matches went to armageddon, with only Pranesh defeating Sargsyan 2-0 in the regular games. He won a queen endgame, followed by a rook endgame to secure the best score in the Losers round one.
Especially painful, for the players and their team, was the matchup of Sindarov vs. Vachier-Lagrave, both signed by Team Vitality. Team Vitality had just announced their signing of Sindarov, only for him to make an early exit that same day. Vachier-Lagrave lost the first game but then won two in a row.
We signed Sindarov for this..??@Vachier_Lagrave vs @GMJSindarov coming up next 💀 pic.twitter.com/mOIHWrr3LL
— Team Vitality 🐝 (@TeamVitality) April 23, 2026
Nepomniachtchi also lost his first game, against Arjun, but struck back twice to turn the match around. He won the armageddon game with Black thanks to a pretty combination starting with 19…Nxf2! and ending with an unusual fork.
Yu just barely squeezed past Sevian in the armageddon tiebreak. Just as the commentators criticized his decision not to flag in the previous game—a drawn three vs. two rook endgame, but he could have tried winning on time with the extra pawn—he landed into a pure opposite-color bishop endgame. In the most drawish endgame in chess, the Chinese grandmaster pulled water from stone in this one.
In the video clip below, Sevian simply could not believe the game had slipped away from him.
Yu Yangyi outplays Sam Sevian in the opposite-color bishop endgame and advances in the Losers Bracket!https://t.co/thrOUJNqq0 pic.twitter.com/QvquRlpw7d
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 23, 2026
The eliminations will keep coming fast in the Losers Bracket, as eight more players will get eliminated on Friday. Who are the three players you’d like to see qualify for the Esports World Cup? Let us know in the comments!
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.
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