Thirty-two players, including top GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Arjun Erigaisi, Vincent Keymer, and Alireza Firouzja, have qualified for the inaugural 2025 Comet Open main event. Next weekend, over two days of playoffs, the players will compete for their slice of the $200,000 prize fund.
There is an untitled tournament as well, and you can see the games and results on our dedicated Events page.
The Playoffs begin on Saturday, October 18, starting at 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8:30 p.m. IST.
32 Players Qualified For Titled Knockout
| Qualifier | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score |
| 1 | GM | mishanick | Alexey Sarana | 3203 | 96 |
| 1 | GM | VincentKeymer | Vincent Keymer | 3141 | 70 |
| 1 | GM | Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 3149 | 68 |
| 1 | GM | jefferyx | Jeffery Xiong | 3125 | 63 |
| 2 | GM | artooon | Pranesh M | 3178 | 87 |
| 2 | GM | frederiksvane | Frederik Svane | 3059 | 82 |
| 2 | GM | Parhamov | Parham Maghsoodloo | 3176 | 79 |
| 2 | GM | LastGladiator1 | Aydin Suleymanli | 3095 | 74 |
| 3 | GM | GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 3187 | 89 |
| 3 | GM | OhanyanEminChess | Emin Ohanyan | 3010 | 67 |
| 3 | GM | FairChess_on_YouTube | Dmitry Andreikin | 3165 | 67 |
| 3 | GM | Polish_fighter3000 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 3161 | 64 |
| 4 | GM | DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 3124 | 92 |
| 4 | GM | Firouzja2003 | Alireza Firouzja | 3223 | 92 |
| 4 | GM | DenLaz | Denis Lazavik | 3241 | 87 |
| 4 | GM | Javokhir_Sindarov05 | Javokhir Sindarov | 3146 | 81 |
| 5 | GM | Oleksandr_Bortnyk | Oleksandr Bortnyk | 3151 | 81 |
| 5 | GM | wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 3124 | 78 |
| 5 | GM | amintabatabaei | Amin Tabatabaei | 3038 | 69 |
| 5 | GM | ChessLover0108 | Mahammad Muradli | 3103 | 69 |
| 6 | GM | Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 3317 | 91 |
| 6 | GM | nihalsarin | Nihal Sarin | 3190 | 76 |
| 6 | IM | rezamahdavi2008 | Reza Mahdavi | 3046 | 76 |
| 6 | GM | Andreikka | Andrey Esipenko | 3180 | 75 |
| 7 | GM | Jospem | Jose Martinez | 3066 | 78 |
| 7 | GM | bardiya_Daneshvar | Bardiya Daneshvar | 3086 | 75 |
| 7 | GM | vugarrasulov | Vugar Rasulov | 3049 | 71 |
| 7 | GM | penguingm1 | Andrew Tang | 3076 | 70 |
| 8 | GM | vi_pranav | Pranav V | 3137 | 83 |
| 8 | GM | Duhless | Daniil Dubov | 3157 | 76 |
| 8 | GM | Macho_2006 | Mukhiddin Madaminov | 3090 | 72 |
| 8 | GM | Sina-Movahed | Sina Movahed | 3099 | 72 |
The Comet Open is a new online tournament that is open to all players as long as they play using the Comet browser. There are two tournaments that occur simultaneously, one for titled players and another for untitled ones. In this report, we will focus only on the titled events, which attracted many of the world’s best players.
The qualifiers were eight arena tournaments, where players strove to rack up as many points as possible in two hours. The time control was 3+0, and the top four from each qualifier made it to the main event.
The $200,000 prize fund, which you can see below, was responsible for attracting even the elite.
Although world number-one GM Magnus Carlsen didn’t participate, we saw world number-two Nakamura jump in. The American managed to win Qualifier 6 between games at an over-the-board classical tournament in Canada—taking a draw against an IM that cost him 4.4 rating points. He’s playing in the Maritime Chess Festival 2025, part of his campaign to play the 40 required games to be eligible for the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament. You can watch his recap of the two games he played in that event, on the same day that he won this qualifier.
Despite the multi-tasking, Nakamura won the tournament by a 15-point margin ahead of second-place GM Nihal Sarin, a blitz specialist. In that tournament we saw Iranian IM Reza Mahdavi finish third and qualify as the only IM to participate in the main event, and he was ahead of world number-37, GM Andrey Esipenko, who finished fourth.
Nakamura beat Mahdavi twice, Esipenko once, and didn’t play Nihal. Against Esipenko, he had some pressure against an exposed king, and finished the game off nicely with a temporary queen sacrifice.
GM Alexey Sarana won Qualifier 1 and achieved the highest score of all eight. He was a full 24 points ahead of world number-six Keymer, though they didn’t have to clash in the event. He did win against third-place GM Matthias Bluebaum, shockingly, in 14 moves. 8…Nxd4?? would have been a clever tactic, if it worked!
Curiously, Qualifier 4 was the only case where first and second finished with the same score. Both GMs Firouzja and Daniel Naroditsky finished on 92 points, and although their encounter finished in a draw, it was an extremely dynamic game. White sacrificed a pawn out of the opening, and later gave the exchange, but Naroditsky eventually split the point, even if he was worse at some point.
Next Saturday, we will see the 32 players participate in a double-elimination knockout bracket, from which just eight players will emerge to play on Sunday. Whom are you rooting for? Let us know in the comments below.
How to review?
The Comet Open, played on Chess.com, is an online prize tournament open to all players using Perplexity’s Comet browser. There are eight qualifiers on October 11 and 12, and 32 players qualify for the Titled Knockout that runs from October 18-19, with a separate event for untitled players. The prize fund is $200,000.
