Schacksnack

Tiviakov beat IM Eelke De Boer in the first round. In the second he lost the first game to Erwin L’Ami but recovered in a must win game two before winning the blitz (5m+2spm) tie-breaks 1.5-0.5. He beat Eric Van den Doel 1.5-0.5 in the semi-finals. His opponent in the final was another surprise, 9th seed 24-year-old Liam Vrolijk. The two classical games were drawn before Tiviakov won the two blitz games to take the title.

Alrizeza Firouzja won an Armageddon Tie-break against Nodirbek Abdusattorov after they tied the combined standings and a two game rapid tie-break match.

Madaminov’s victory came after a long game against Hans Moke Niemann where he was pressing for a win but was also in danger of losing at one stage. He didn’t have more than a few minutes to prepare for the tie-break.

19-year-old Madaminov has played most of his recent chess in Asia which according to Vlad Ghita suffers from rating deflation, potentially making him very underrated. Madaminov has also been working as Sindarov’s second since the 2025 World Cup no doubt that’s helped him a lot.

The FIDE Olympiad takes place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan September 15 to 28, 2026. The founding of the UzChess Cup was part of the ”national preparation programme for hosting and competing in the 46th World Chess Olympiad (2026).” That program has already seen the rise of Nodirbek Abdusattorov followed by Javokhir Sindarov who won the Candidates, they both currently have the same rating tied at 2777 and 4th/5th in the world rankings. Uzbekistan will have a very competitive team.

Half a point behind the leaders were Arjun Erigaisi, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov all of whom had decent enough tournaments. Every player lost at least one game, the most bizarre being Nodirbek Abdusattorov who was having an indifferent tournament until round 8, he’d got a win in Round 2 against Mamedyarov and drawn the rest, his loss came against tail-ender Nikolas Theodorou in a strange way, in a very level position he didn’t register his Rook was attacked the previous move, picked up his King, realised at that moment what he’d done and just had to resign.

I know there’s a refrain going round along the lines of ”who says classical chess is dead?” but ”who says classical chess is dead?” this was a really super tournament.

The lowest rated player, 19 year-old Mukhiddin Madaminov won after winning a tie-break blitz match against 8th seed Shamsiddin Vokhidov. They had both scored 5.5/9 half a point clear of Ian Nepomniachtchi, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Arjun Erigaisi. Mahammad Muradli won the Challengers with a dominant 7.5/9 two points clear of second placed Mittal Aditya. The Futures tournament was won by IM Khumoyun Begmuratov (born 2010). Timur Gareyev edged out Shavkatjon Abdukholikov on tie-break in the open after both scored 7.5/9.

Open: Magnus Carlsen, Vincent Keymer, Alireza Firouzja, Wesley So, R Praggnanandhaa and D Gukesh. Women: Ju Wenjun, Zhu Jiner, Humpy Koneru, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Anna Muzychuk and Deshmukh Divya.

Praggnanandhaa won the event just pipping Wesley So by a point, Praggnanandhaa won his last four games. Magnus Carlsen had his poorest result in my memory, he won three and lost four. Bibisara Assaubayeva had led for much of the women’s event and her only defeat in the final round didn’t stop her winning. I give both the official final standings and a conventional table.

Oro earned the title after a win over Bartlomiej Niedbala in round 8 but his tournament ended on a bit of a whimper with a loss to Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final round. None of this matter very much, it’s clear Oro has the talent to go very far and he will no doubt be just relieved to get this landmark out of the way.

Hans Moke Niemann held off a fabulous Caruana challenge on the final day to win by half a point. Wesley So was a point further back. World Championship rivals Gukesh and Sindarov met and Gukesh won the rapid game and Sindarov both blitz. The rapid games scored double the blitz game in the combined standing.

The leader Arjun Erigaisi went full blooded for a win against Andy Woodward and it really was too much when he pushed his g and h pawns with no development. Erigaisi was losing but somehow managed to escape with a draw.

In the meantime Magnus Carlsen was meeting 14-year-old Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus for the first time. Carlsen played it relatively safe and went into a technical endgame that Erdogmus reacted sharply and well, but still Carlsen could continue to press and eventually created problems that Erdogmus couldn’t solve in time trouble.

Meanwhile Abdusattorov-Van Foreest and Grandelius-Zhu Jiner both finished in draws just after the first time control.

It came down to a blitz tie-break, a pair of 3m+2spm games were played, Carlsen winning the first and Erigaisi before sudden death games, Black got more time and they would alternate colours until the first decisive result, Carlsen won Erigaisi’s Queen and the tournament in that first sudden death game. Carlsen seemed to enjoy the event and looked to have shaken off quite a bit of rust ahead of the Norway Chess tournament later this month. He won the event for the first time.

Final Standings: 1st Magnus Carlsen (after tie-break) 2nd Arjun Erigaisi, 5/7. 3rd-4th Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, 4. 5th Jorden Van Foreest, 3½. 6th Andy Woodward, 3. 7th Jiner Zhu, 2. 8th Nils Grandelius, 1½. 8 players.

Round 6 Standings: 1st Erigaisi 4.5pts 2nd= Carlsen, Erdogmus 4pts, 4th Abdusattorov, 3.5pts, 5th Van Foreest, Jorden 3pts, 6th Woodward 2.5pts, 7th Zhu Jiner 1.5pts 8th Grandelius 1pt.

Final Round 7 pairings 11am 7th May: Carlsen vs Erdogmus, Erigaisi vs Woodward, Grandelius vs Zhu Jiner and Abdusattorov vs Van Foreest.

Of major interest was the first meeting of Javokhir Sindarov and World Champion Gukesh in the rapid. It turned out to be a little disappointing. In a balanced position Sindarov sacrificed a piece and there was just never enough for it. There were three games on day 2 and Sindarov lost all three.

Hans Moke Niemann and Wesley So lead the rapid on 4.5/6 with the last day tomorrow followed by two days of blitz.

Round 6 of 9 standings: 1st= Niemann, So 4½pts, 3rd Fedoseev 4pts, 4th= Caruana, Gukesh, Duda 3pts, 7th MVL 2½pts 8th= Firouzja, Sindaro 2pts, 10th Wojtaszek 1½pts

Magnus Carlsen said that his play was shaky against Zhu Jiner and that he’d been outplayed in a key middlegame sequence. Zhu had the upper hand sometimes and Carlsen then got the advantage but let it go. The strange 33…Kf8 would have been equal and only with 36…Nxg3? was Carlsen winning.

Andy Woodward was briefly winning against Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, the game lasted 104 moves but the position remained stubbornly equal after he failed to find 37.h5!

Absolutely no-one can blame Nils Grandelius’ decision to hack off all the pieces against Nodirbek Abdusattorov and end his losing run.

Round 5 Standings: 1st= Erigaisi, Erdogmus 3.5pts, 3rd= Carlsen, Abdusattorov 3pts, 5th= Van Foreest, Woodward 2.5pts, 7th Zhu Jiner 1.5pts 8th Grandelius 0.5pts.

Round 6 Wednesday 6th May 2026. Erdogmus-Abdusattorov, Van Foreest-Grandelius, Zhu Jiner-Erigaisi, Woodward-Carlsen.