Can Murali Karthikeyan win the Sardinia World Chess Festival 2026?
10/05/2026 - GM Murali Karthikeyan won his 8th round against Ilia Smirin to get into the joint lead with Frederik Svane. In the last round, Karthikeyan will face Svane with black pieces; currently, both players are on 6.5/8 points. 8 players are trailing with 6/8 points. The most important clash of this event will be on board 2 between Ian Nepomniachtchi and the Argentinian Faustino Oro. Faustino already secured a GM norm in 8 rounds and became the second youngest grandmaster in the history of chess after Abhimanyu Mishra. Read what happened in the penultimate round. Round 9 will start at 9:30 PM CET/1 PM IST. Photos: FT Niklesh Jain