Day seven of the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 brought a dramatic shake-up at the top, as Matthias Bluebaum and Nihal Sarin seized the lead in the Open with 5.5/7. In the Women’s Grand Swiss, Vaishali is again the sole leader after a victory over Guo Qi and is on 6/7.
The round started with Señora Auxi Del Olmo – the mayor of the Spanish city of Linares – making the first move on board one in the Women’s tournament, in the game Stefanova – Lagno. Del Olmo was accompanied by Javier Ochoa de Echaguen, the President of the Spanish Chess Federation. Linares, a city synonymous with chess history, is set to be the stage for the FIDE World Women’s Team Championship 2025, which will run from 17 to 24 November.
After leading for four straight rounds, Parham Maghsoodloo suffered his first loss in the tournament. He was defeated in the Slav by Nihal Sarin, who played as White. The Iranian maintained parity roughly until move 30, when time trouble caused him to slip.
White is a pawn up and has two runners on the queenside, but it’s not easy. Black has pressure along the e-file, and the queen-pawn battery pins the g3-square, leaving White’s king exposed. The best choice for White here was to play 34.Rc7 which puts pressure on Black’s seventh rank but also cuts the queen pin on g3.
But Sarin was also in time trouble and instead opted for 34.Nxg6? which was met by the immediate 34…Qg3+ and now the position is even. After 35.Kf1 Nf6 36.Rxf6! gxf6 37.Nxh4 the opponents reached the final critical position:
Instead of taking on h4 and proceeding with Rc3, Maghsoodloo played 37…Rxb3?? which allowed White to evict the black queen with 38.Nf5! the rest was an easy ride for Nihal. After Qf4 39.Qxd5 Rb1+ 40.Kf2 Re5 41.Qd8+ Kh7 42.Qxf6 threatening checkmate on g7, Black resigned, catapulting Nihal Sarin to the shared lead in the tournament.
Things also cleared up among the other four players who – like Sarin – entered the round with 4.5 points.
Arjun Erigaisi lost as White to Germany’s Matthias Bluebaum. Playing against the Catalan, Erigaisi made several unforced errors, leading to a completely lost position as early as move 26.
Black’s pieces are more active and he has potential discovered attacks along the d-file. Instead of moving his d2-bishop to safety with 26.Bf4 with a slightly inferior but defendable position, Erigaisi blundered with 26.Qxa7?? which was met by a quick 26…Ba8! The rook is attacking the queen, but the real target is the d2-bishop; wherever White puts his queen, she will be attacked in the next move by the d5-knight, opening the file for the rook to capture the bishop on d2.
This victory launched Bluebaum to shared first place, together with Sarin.
On board three, Anish Giri split a point with Abhimanyu Mishra in the King’s Indian. Despite Giri securing an extra pawn towards the end, it was a drawn rook endgame and Mishra held it without trouble.
In other notable results of the round, Alireza Firouzja won as White against Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Yakubboev. Uzbekistan’s pride was saved by another Nodirbek – Abdusattorov, who defeated Iranian Amin Tabatabaei in the Italian Game. Abdusattorov was better for most of the game, advancing his d-pawn before an effective finish:
Out of many winning options Nodirbek chose the most spectacular: 36.Bd5! leaving Black paralysed, as he can either take the bishop or lose a knight on c4. Either way, the outcome was certain: 36…Bxd5 37.Rb8 and Black can’t prevent the queen promotion on c8.
For his victory, Abdusattorov was declared the player of the day in the Open.
In one of the most anticipated duels of the day, Hans Niemann defeated the 14-year-old Turkish prodigy Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus in a double-edged Petrov. The opponents traded mistakes in the critical position on move 13.
Both sides are in attack mode. Instead of 14.Bxc6! Hans opted for the weaker 14.h3 giving a chance to Black to play sharp with 14…fxg2 and in case of 15.hxg4 then Qh4 16.Kxg2 Bd6 with a very uncomfortable position for White.
But Erdogmus played 14…Bh5 allowing White to proceed with the original plan: 15.Bxc6 bxc6? 15…Qc6 was better.
16.Re5 Qg6 17.g3 Bd6 18.Nb3! Black can’t take on d5 because of 18…Bxd5?? 19.Nc5 with a threat of mate with Qa6-b7. Niemann converted this winning position with surgical precision forcing Black’s resignation on move 27.
Rating favourite Praggnanandhaa and 2023 Grand Swiss winner Gujrathi both won their games today, maintaining close proximity to the top. But the World Champion, Gukesh D, continues to sink. He lost again today.
A third consecutive loss for Gukesh
Playing as Black against Turkey’s rising star, Ediz Gurel, the World Champion managed to gain a slight advantage in the middlegame but then blundered away.
With a third loss in a row, Gukesh has completely sunk in the tournament.
The Women’s tournament
Vaishali R extended her lead, again emerging as the sole leader in the tournament.
Playing with the white pieces against China’s Guo Qi, Vaishali achieved more initiative in the Petrov, opting for a sharp approach.
Vaishali is attacking. Here Black had to decide where to retreat her queen. The best option was 21…Qg4 transferring her most powerful piece to the kingside and maintaining equality. Guo, however, moved her queen to a passive position with 21…Qa6? and after 22.Bxe7 (even better was 22.Nh5 immediately) 22…Nxe7 23.f4 h5? 24.f5! h4 25.Nh5 Rcc8 26.f6! White got to the black king. A few moves later Guo resigned facing the imminent checkmate.
Another confident performance by Vaishali, who is on a path to defend her 2023 Grand Swiss title. The win puts her alone at the top and earns her player of the day honours.
Vaishali’s co-leader from day six, Kateryna Lagno, drew with the black pieces on board one against former Women’s World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova. In the Four Knights game neither side secured any advantage throughout and a draw was agreed on move 26 following threefold repetition. After the draw, Lagno is in sole second place, on 5.5 points.
In the cohort of players on four points, former World Champion Mariya Muzychuk, Bibisara Assaubayeva and Yuxing Song all won their games.
Assaubayeva defeated Irina Bulmaga (who was also on 4/6) in the English, in a game lasting 85 moves. In a rook and knight endgame where Bibisara had a 2:1 pawn advantage on the kingside, Bulmaga made several errors allowing White to capture her remaining pawn and win.
Mariya Muzychuk scored an effective victory over Uzbekistan’s Afruza Khamdamova finding the most efficient continuation in the following position:
20.Nf4! Offering a knight but staging a double attack – on h6 and e6. 20…gxf4 Black has no better option. After 21.Rxh6 Bd7 22.exf4 fxg4 23.d5?! g3? 24.Qe4 c5 25.d6
White is winning here as Black’s pieces are all tangled up and exposed.
Song Yuxing defeated Ulviyya Fataliyeva in a game which saw the black king take an early walk in the game to f6.
White is better but Black had several decent options such as 13…Bd6 and 13…Nc6 to name a few. Instead, Ulviyya played 13…h6 and after 14.Qh5 White is already winning as her pin on e6 has tied up Black in the centre. So, Fataliyeva decided to take the king for a walk.
14…Ke7 15.Qh5+ Ke8 16.Qh5 Ke7 17.Ba3+ Kf6 18.Bxf8?! The immediate 18.f4 was much better.
18… Nxf8 19.f4! Ng6 20.f5 and White forced capitulation right before the time control.
The full results of Round 7 and pairings for Round 8 can be found here:
Women: grandswiss2025.fide.com/grand-swiss-women/
Open: grandswiss2025.fide.com/open/
Round 8 will take place on Friday, 12th September at 3 PM local time.
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/