Grand Swiss: Demchenko, Firouzja and Maghsoodloo on 2 out of 2

Five players start with back-to-back wins (in both categories)

After two rounds of play in Samarkand, only five players remain on perfect 2/2 scores across both tournaments, out of a combined field of 172 competitors. This small number of leaders serves to illustrate the depth of the Grand Swiss fields, where lower-rated players are capable of holding or even defeating the favourites. For comparison, both in 2021 and 2023 the first two rounds ended with seven players tied for first on 2/2 in the open section. In the women’s events of those years, the corresponding figures were seven players in 2021 and five in 2023.

In this year’s edition, three players share the lead in the 116-player open: Alireza Firouzja of France, Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran and Anton Demchenko, now representing Slovenia, seeded 76^th in the starting rank. In the women’s tournament, only two players have begun with back-to-back wins: defending champion Vaishali Rameshbabu of India, and Olga Badelka of Austria, seeded 40^th in a 56-player field.

The standings behind the leaders are already densely populated. In the open, thirty players stand on 1½ points, having drawn one game and won the other. This large chasing pack includes a number of the highest-rated pre-tournament favourites who drew on Thursday before winning on Friday: Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (the top seed), Arjun Erigaisi (the second seed), Vincent Keymer (the fifth seed) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (the ninth seed).

In the women’s section, fifteen players trail by half a point, with only two of them belonging to the top ten by rating: Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan (the third seed) and Kateryna Lagno, representing FIDE (the fourth seed).

Nihal Sarin having a pre-game conversation with Abhimanyu Puranik | Photo: Michal Walusza

Open section: Demchenko gets consecutive upset wins

The three players tied for the lead each won their second-round games in distinctive fashion.

• Alireza Firouzja outplayed Israeli GM Maxim Rodshtein with the black pieces in a Slav Defence. Rodshtein obtained some initiative in the early middlegame but failed to find a plan to build on it. Firouzja seized the advantage and, although his conversion was not without inaccuracies, he nonetheless brought the game to a successful conclusion.
• Parham Maghsoodloo scored a convincing 32-move victory against David Antón of Spain with the white pieces. The Iranian star castled queenside, creating an unbalanced game. When Antón’s counterplay on the queenside proved ineffective, Maghsoodloo ruthlessly converted his advantage. It was a noteworthy result, as Antón had finished eleventh in the previous edition of the Grand Swiss.
• Anton Demchenko, a 38-year-old grandmaster from Russia who now represents Slovenia, continued his excellent start by securing a second upset win in succession. After defeating Pentala Harikrishna with black in the first round, he overcame Sam Shankland in a double-edged Sicilian in round two. Shankland generated strong attacking chances along the dark-squared long diagonal against the white king on the queenside, but Demchenko defended accurately, neutralised the threats, and simplified into an endgame where his extra rook outweighed Shankland’s two pawns. His next challenge will be to face second seed Arjun Erigaisi with the black pieces in round three.

Parham Maghsoodloo | Photo: Michal Walusza

Although Demchenko was the only player to move to 2/2 by upsetting a higher-rated opponent, there were plenty of other surprises. Several players who had started with draws stunned higher-rated rivals to reach 1½/2. Among them were Abhimanyu Mishra, who defeated Alexey Sarana; Leon Luke Mendonca, who overcame Pavel Eljanov; Alexandr Predke, who beat Ray Robson; Yuriy Kuzubov, who defeated Radoslaw Wojtaszek; Cristóbal Henríquez, who overcame Alexander Grischuk; and Jules Moussard, who defeated Ivan Saric.

Also, a number of elite players recorded their first wins of the event after opening-day draws. These included Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Arjun Erigaisi, Vincent Keymer, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Yu Yangyi, Richard Rapport and Nihal Sarin.

This video course includes GM Anish Giri’s deep insights and IM Sagar Shah’s pertinent questions to the super GM. In Vol.1 all the openings after 1.e4 are covered.

On the top board, reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju came close to securing victory but ultimately let the full point slip away. His opponent, 14-year-old Turkish prodigy Yagiz Erdogmus, played a dubious manoeuvre as early as move 6, allowing Gukesh to take over the initiative. The Indian gradually increased his advantage and entered a queenless middlegame with strong central passed pawns. However, as move 40 approached, and with three minutes left against Erdogmus’ single minute, Gukesh committed a crucial mistake. The young grandmaster from Turkey seized his chance and escaped with a draw.

Richard Rapport sharing a laugh with Aleksandar Indjic | Photo: Michal Walusza

Demchenko 1-0 Shankland

Anton Demchenko got the better of Sam Shankland | Photo: Michal Walusza

Gukesh ½-½ Erdogmus

From Mating with a queen; a rook; two bishops; a knight and a bishop; to the basics of pawn endgames – here you will gain the necessary know-how to turn your endgame advantages into victories!

Yakiz Kaan Erdogmus escaped with a draw against reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju | Photo: Michal Walusza

Standings after round 2

…116 players

All games

Women’s section: Vaishali and Badelka co-leaders

After a turbulent first round, which saw more than half the games produce decisive results and numerous upsets, round two was somewhat quieter, though still combative. Out of 28 games, 12 ended decisively, and only 3 of those were won by the lower-rated player.

The two co-leaders both scored wins with the black pieces.

• Vaishali Rameshbabu, the winner of the 2023 Women’s Grand Swiss, faced 19-year-old Dutch WGM Eline Roebers. Roebers made a critical mistake early in a Ruy Lopez, pushing her f-pawn before completing kingside castling. Vaishali reacted forcefully, provoking further errors from her young opponent. White’s position soon collapsed, and the Indian grandmaster clinched the win in just 22 moves.
• Olga Badelka, originally from Belarus and now representing Austria, overcame Zsoka Gaal of Hungary. Gaal had stunned top seed Anna Muzychuk on day one, but in round two she misplayed the early middlegame, allowing Badelka to take control in a position with major pieces and opposite-coloured bishops. Soon her queen was trapped on the queenside, and resignation followed quickly.

Olga Badelka playing black against Zsoka Gaal | Photo: Michal Walusza

In this course, we will learn how to identify passively placed pieces in any given situation and how to improve their health by bringing them into active squares.

Several of the higher-rated players who had suffered unexpected losses in the first round managed to bounce back on day two. These included Tan Zhongyi of China (the second seed), Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine (the sixth seed), Leya Garifullina, representing FIDE (the eighth seed), Carissa Yip of the United States (the eleventh seed) and Teodora Injac of Serbia (the twelfth seed).

Elsewhere, Vantika Agrawal of India came very close to securing a second consecutive upset. Paired on the top board against third seed Bibisara Assaubayeva, she played strongly and reached a clearly winning endgame. However, on move 69 she committed a decisive error, allowing Assaubayeva to escape with a draw. It was a huge missed opportunity for the Indian rising star, who would have joined the co-leaders with a win.

Two players obtained upset victories on the lower boards: Guldona Karimova (Uzbekistan, 49^th seed) defeated Lela Javakhishvili (Georgia, 17^th seed), while Shrook Wafa (Egypt, 53^rd seed) beat Elina Danielian (Armenia, 23^rd seed)

Kateryna Lagno stands on 1½/2 after beating Umida Omonova | Photo: Michal Walusza

Roebers 0-1 Vaishali

Vaishali Rameshbabu | Photo: Michal Walusza

Vantika ½-½ Assaubayeva

This DVD focuses on several types of material imbalances, such as Rook vs 2 Pieces, Queen vs 2 Rooks, and Queen vs Pieces.

Vantika Agrawal facing Bibisara Assaubayeba on the top board | Photo: Michal Walusza

Standings after round 2

…56 players

All games

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