After five hours and 45 minutes of tension, Parham Maghsoodloo outlasted Alireza Firouzja to take the sole lead in the tournament. In the women’s event, Vaishali Rameshbabu – despite being down to her final minute – played fearlessly and defeated Olga Badelka to claim the top spot.
It was a long day in Samarkand, with many of the top games stretching late into the evening. If there was a theme to Day 3, it was concentration – or lack of it – as several decisive matches were decided by blunders in tense, balanced endgames.
The main duel of round three in the Open took place on board one, where France’s Alireza Firouzja faced his former compatriot Parham Maghsoodloo in the battle for the lead. Playing the Najdorf, the two transitioned to a complicated endgame, where Black had a slight advantage thanks to a pawn chain in the centre and two bishops. However, at some point Maghsoodloo miscalculated and lost a pawn, allowing Firouzja to equalise.
White has almost complete domination on the queenside, but his g4-pawn is lost. If he’s not careful, Black can be just in time to win the race to promotion. The only option for White here is to put his rook on the eighth rank and go with checks: 43.Rb8 Rxg4 44.Rf8+ Ke6 45.Re8+ Kd7 46.Ne5+ Kxe8 47.Nxg4.
Instead, after more than five hours of play, Firouzja made a fatal error with 43.Rb6??
This immediately loses: 43…Bxb6 44.axb6 Rh7! 45.c4 Rd7! Cutting off the white king from the kingside.
46.Nb4 White is forced to pull back his knight and try to stop Black’s advance on the kingside.
46…f3 47.Nd3 Ke7 48.c5 Rd8! 49.c6 Kd6 Right on time to squash any hopes for Firouzja.
50.c7 Re8 51.Kc3 Kc6 White resigns, 0-1.
A crushing blow to Firouzja in the first high-stakes clash of the tournament.
A crushing blow to Firouzja in the first high-stakes clash of the tournament.
In another tense and long game, Arjun Erigaisi defeated Anton Demchenko in the Petroff Defence. On two occasions in the endgame, Erigaisi had a significant advantage but failed to capitalise. But when Demchenko gave him a third chance, the Indian took it:
White has just played 61.c6-c7. According to chess engines, the position is even.
After 61…Rb1+ (or 61…g5) 62.Nb5 g5 63.Rxg7 g4 64.Rxg4 Rxb5+ 65.Kxb5 Kxc7 all pawns would have been removed and Black would have been left with a knight against a rook, sufficient for a draw.
However, Demchenko instantly blundered with 61…Rc4??
After 62.Nb5! Black has to give up his rook to avoid checkmate.
The last two games on the top boards – lasting well into the seventh hour – saw Abdusattorov and Praggnanandhaa emerge as victors.
Praggnanandhaa won against the resilient veteran Boris Gelfand in a fierce queen and rook endgame which could have gone either way. Abdusattorov had a commanding position from the middlegame, but his opponent Abhimanyu Puranik put up a fierce and long fight.
World Champion Gukesh D continued in strong form on Day three. Playing as Black, he defeated Daniil Yufa. In the Ragozin, White mixed up his preparation and ended up a pawn down as early as move seven.
After three rounds, Parham Maghsoodloo is on three points, followed by six players on 2.5/3.
One of the sharpest games of the round was played between Robert Hovhannisyan and Vladimir Fedoseev. In the Scandinavian Defence, White managed to get a slight edge by holding more initiative on the board, but early middlegame complications led to a tactical position with White making a daring sacrifice:
It’s unusual to see white pawns on the sixth rank this early in the game. Black should have removed one threat by taking on c6. Instead, Vladimir took the bait with 19…Qxe2, after which he was punished effectively.
20.Rfe1! Offering another sacrifice. 20…Bxe1 21.Rxe1Qb2 22.Rxe7 Be6 23.Nd4 Qb1+ 24.Kh2 g5 Opening a space for his queen to help the black king.
25.Qe5 Qg6
It’s hard to believe that White is down in material here, given his dominance across the board. The strongest move in the position was 26.Nf5. In case Black plays 26…Bxf5, then he’s checkmated after 27.Rxe8+ Rxe8 28.Qxe8#. Instead, Black would have to play 28…Rf8 and after 29.Rxe6, he could not defend the knight coming to e7 with a double attack on the king and the queen.
Hovhannisyan instead went for a different line with: 26.cxb7 Rab8 27.Nc6 Nd5 28.Rxe8 Rxe8, but now he missed the winning move – Ne7+! Instead, he played 29.d7?! Which still was enough to win in a knight endgame that emerged after 29…Nxd7 30.B8=Q Qxh6 31.Qxe8+ Bxe8 32.Qxe8 Kg7 33.Qe5+ Qf6 34.Qxf6+ Kxf6 35.Nxa7. Eventually, White’s a-passer tipped the balance in his favour.
The Women’s event
In the Women’s tournament, only two players had a perfect score after the first two rounds: the 2023 Grand Swiss winner Vaishali Rameshbabu and naturalised Austrian Olga Badelka.
In a direct duel for first place, Vaishali defeated Badelka in a sharp line of the Pirc Defence.
This is the crucial part of the game. The position is extremely complicated with threats on both sides. Only 24 moves have been played, but Vaishali had a minute on her clock, while Badelka had six.
Moments like these distinguish the real champions. Despite being desperately low on time, Vaishali chose the strongest move, a breakthrough on the kingside – 25.g4 – even though it led to serious complications. Black has to respond; otherwise, the pawn will advance and endanger her king.
25…fxg4 26.hxg4 Now it was Badelka’s turn to play sharply. The best option was 26…h5 – opening her king and directly challenging White. She stopped for a while to think, but it seems Badelka was tempted by White’s time trouble, and she leapt directly into a blunder – 26…Nfxd5??
White was now completely winning, and Vaishali didn’t miss her chance. After 27.Nxd5 Nxd5 28.Rxd5, Black could not recapture: 28…Qxd5 fails to 29.Ng6+! hxg5 30.Qh4+, winning the queen.
28…Bxb2 29.Rh5! Black is now completely lost. With an extra piece, Vaishali easily managed the time pressure even with just a minute on her clock. Badelka continued to resist until move 38, when she resigned, faced with an imminent loss of her queen.
Kateryna Lagno continued her advance towards the top with another victory. Playing with the black pieces, she defeated Xeniya Balabayeva of Kazakhstan.
White held firmly until the endgame, but then blundered, allowing her rook and queen to be pinned.
Despite Black having a 2:1 advantage on the queenside, the position is even. White should have simply taken on e4 with her queen, and after the exchange, her rook is just right in time to stop Black’s potential c-passer via Rf4-f1-c1. But Balabayeva made a critical error – capturing with the wrong piece on e4.
35.Rxe4?? Qg6 and White’s pieces are completely tied up. Black just proceeded by advancing her pawns. White tried to resist, but in the end, she also blundered her rook and had to resign.
Two more players finished the day on 2.5 points – Chinese IM Yuxin Song defeated India’s Vantika Agrawal in the French, while Dinara Wagner of Germany, playing with the black pieces, got the best of Meruert Kamalidenova.
In another top duel of the day, Bibisara Assaubayeva split a point with Ulviyya Fataliyeva, with both now on two points.
One of the most exciting games of the day was played by Stavroula Tsolakidou, who executed a beautiful sacrifice against Eline Roebers.
Black has just committed the decisive error with 18…fxe4? Stavroula delivered a powerful blow 19.Rxg7!! If 19…Kxg7 20.Rg1+ Kh8.
19…Bf5 Trying to hold, but then 20.Nxe5!! Another sacrifice, after which Black is completely lost. Although White’s conversion was not perfect, Stavroula forced Black’s resignation on move 35.
The full results of Round 3 and pairings for round 4 can be found here:
Women: grandswiss2025.fide.com/grand-swiss-women/
Open: grandswiss2025.fide.com/open/
Round four starts at 3 PM local time on Sunday, September 7.
Written by Milan Dinic
Photos: Michal Walusza
About the event
The FIDE Grand Swiss is one of the most significant tournaments in the World Chess Championship cycle, featuring many of the world’s strongest chess players. Launched in 2019 (with the women’s event starting in 2021), the 11-round Swiss system tournament is held every two years. Considered as one of the most difficult and unpredictable chess events given its open nature, the top two finishers in both categories qualify directly for the World Candidates tournament where a challenger for the title of world champion is chosen.
The 2025 edition runs from 4th to 15th September at the EXPO Centre in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. There are 116 players taking part in the Open and 56 players in the Women’s competition. The total prize fund for the event is $855,000 – $625,000 for the Open and $230,000 for the Women’s event.
All the rounds will be broadcast live on FIDE’s official YouTube channel.
For more information, visit the event website: grandswiss2025.fide.com/