Fujairah Global R3-4: Pranav Venkatesh and Jiner Zhu in the leaders' pack

by Shahid Ahmed - 28/08/2025

GM Pranav Venkatesh drew both of his games in Round 3 and 4 to stay at the top in Fujairah Global 2025 Superstars. Pranav first drew against GM Aydin Suleymanli (AZE) in 16 moves. Then he had a well contested draw against GM Sanan Sjugirov (HUN) where the majority of the endgame featured all four bishops. The sole female participant in the Superstars, GM Jiner Zhu (CHN) is also at an unbeaten 3/4. GM Raunak Sadhwani and GM Aditya Mittal are at 2.5/4 each. Raunak drew against GM Ivan Zemlyanskii and then defeated, GM Leon Luke Mendonca. Aditya on the other hand first defeated the two-time Asian Junior champion, GM Aleksey Grebnev and then split the point with GM Abhimanyu Mishra. Round 5 starts today at 5 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Masters: Sambit, Jubin, Anuj and Prraneeth make a strong start

In the Masters section, IM Sambit Panda, IM Jubin Jimmy, IM Anuj Shrivatri and GM Prraneeth Vuppala are at 3.5/4 each. Sambit first scored a beautiful win over IM Attila Kuru (TUR). Then he drew the next game against GM Vahap Sanal (TUR). Prraneeth Vuppala escaped with a draw from a lost position against IM Eline Roebers (NED).

Round 3: Aditya and Pranesh score fine victories

Two Kerala boys - GM Nihal Sarin and GM S L Narayanan played a hard-fought draw | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Pranesh - Shanglei

Position after 26...f6??

World Junior 2014 champion, GM Shanglei Lu (CHN, 2647) had a difficult position. 26...f6?? did not help his case. 27.Be6! probably would have finished things faster. However, Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters 2025 Challengers winner, opted for 27.Bc6 Kg8 28.Bxa4 Kh7 29.Bb3 fxg5?? 30.hxg5+- and White won the game in the next few moves.

GM Pranesh M scored a fine victory over GM Shanglei Lu (CHN) | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Aditya - Grebnev

Position after 40.e6

GM Aditya Mittal (2560) made the wise decision of giving his b2-pawn in order to create a passed pawn on the e-file 40.e6 Nf6 41.Rc5 fxe6 42.fxe6 Re8 43.e7 Kf7 44.Rxa5 b3 45.Ba3 b2 46.Bxb2 Rxe7 White traded his e7-pawn to stop the passed b-pawn and use his newly created passed pawn on a4 to win the game against the two-time Asian Junior champion, GM Aleksey Grebnev (2595).

GM Aditya Mittal played a model game to beat GM Aleksey Grebnev | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

GM Bharath Subramaniyam H got the better of GM Yuriy Kuzubov (UKR) | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Round 4:

GM Pranav Venkatesh drew against GM Sanan Sjugirov (HUN) where the majority of the game featured double bishops on each side | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

GM Abhimanyu Puranik (USA) - GM Aditya Mittal: 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

GM Jiner Zhu (CHN) defeated GM Alexander Motylev (ROU) to stay in the lead 3/4 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Leon - Raunak

Position after 29...Red8

GM Raunak Sadhwani (2676) is a sharp tactician. 29....Red8 is making a deadly threat. GM Leon Luke Mendonca (2606) misjudged it and blundered 30.Qc2?? Find out what White should have done instead.

GM Leon Luke Mendonca fell for GM Raunak Sadhwani's sharp tactical threat | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

GM S L Narayanan escaped with a draw after his opponent GM Andrei Volokitin (UKR) misplayed in a winning position | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

GM Bharath Subramaniyam H - GM Abhimanyu Puranik: 0.5-0.5

Masters Round 3-4: A great day for Sambit Panda

Kuru - Sambit

Position after 15...Nxd4!

IM Sambit Panda (2379) made a fantastic sacrifice 15...Nxd4! His opponent, IM Atilla Kuru (TUR, 2435) accepted it 16.Qxd5 Ne2+ 17.Kh2 Nxf4 18.Qb5 Bc5 19.Rc1 a6 20.Qf1 Nxf2 21.b4 N2d3 22.Rxc5 Nxc5 Black got the sacrificed exchange back but that's not the point 23.bxc5 e4!-+ and he is winning.

IM Sambit Panda fantastic chess to beat IM Atilla Kuru (TUR) | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

In the fourth round, Sambit played well to draw against GM Vahap Sanal (TUR, 2550).

IM Aaditya Dhingra crushed GM Mihail Nikitenko

IM Mohammad Anees M defended a rook and knight vs rook endgame against GM Jan Malek (POL) iu a 132-move long marathon draw | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

IM Sahib Singh (pictured) - GM Mamikon Gharibyan (ARM): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Dubai Chess and Culture Club

Round 4 in progress | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

For more Round 3 and 4 photos, please click at the respective links.

Replay live stream

Replay Round 3 live commentary by Angelika Valkova (UKR) and GM Viorel Iordachescu (MDA) | Video: Fujairah Chess & Culture Club

Replay Round 4 live commentary by Angelika Valkova (UKR) and GM Viorel Iordachescu (MDA) | Video: Fujairah Chess & Culture Club

Replay Round 3-4 Superstars games

Replay Round 3-4 Masters games

Round 4 Superstars results

Bo.	No.		White	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	FED	Rtg	No.	PGN
1	8	GM	MARTINEZ ALCANTARA, Jose Eduardo	MEX	2636	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	JACOBSON, Brandon	USA	2594	27	PGN
2	23	GM	PRANAV, V	IND	2597	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	SJUGIROV, Sanan	HUN	2636	9	PGN
3	35	GM	HONG, Andrew	USA	2580	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	SULEYMANLI, Aydin	AZE	2609	19	PGN
4	3	GM	TABATABAEI, M. Amin	IRI	2673	2	1 - 0	2	GM	PRANESH, M	IND	2589	29	PGN
5	33	GM	DUDIN, Gleb	HUN	2583	2	1 - 0	2	GM	SALEM, A.R. Saleh	UAE	2640	7	PGN
6	18	GM	MISHRA, Abhimanyu	USA	2610	2	½ - ½	2	GM	ADITYA, Mittal	IND	2560	42	PGN
7	44	GM	ZHU, Jiner	CHN	2536	2	1 - 0	2	GM	MOTYLEV, Alexander	ROU	2595	25	PGN
8	1	GM	NIHAL, Sarin	IND	2692	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	MURADLI, Mahammad	AZE	2586	31	PGN
9	20	GM	MENDONCA, Leon Luke	IND	2606	1½	0 - 1	1½	GM	SADHWANI, Raunak	IND	2676	2	PGN
10	28	GM	PRANAV, Anand	IND	2590	1½	0 - 1	1½	GM	SHANKLAND, Sam	USA	2670	4	PGN
11	6	GM	THEODOROU, Nikolas	GRE	2646	1½	1 - 0	1½	GM	KANTOR, Gergely	HUN	2569	39	PGN
12	26	GM	NARAYANAN, S L	IND	2595	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	VOLOKITIN, Andrei	UKR	2628	11	PGN
13	12	GM	CHEPARINOV, Ivan	BUL	2625	1½	1 - 0	1½	GM	MOVAHED, Sina	IRI	2558	43	PGN
14	32	GM	ZEMLYANSKII, Ivan	FID	2586	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	DANESHVAR, Bardiya	IRI	2625	13	PGN
15	34	GM	PICHOT, Alan	ESP	2581	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	DONCHENKO, Alexander	GER	2616	17	PGN
16	41	GM	BHARATH, Subramaniyam H	IND	2562	1½	½ - ½	1	GM	PURANIK, Abhimanyu	IND	2635	10	PGN
17	16	GM	DARDHA, Daniel	BEL	2616	1	½ - ½	1	GM	LU, Shanglei	CHN	2647	5	PGN
18	14	GM	HAKOBYAN, Aram	ARM	2625	1	½ - ½	1	GM	ITURRIZAGA BONELLI, Eduardo	ESP	2576	36	PGN
19	24	GM	GREBNEV, Aleksey	FID	2595	1	1 - 0	1	GM	SOCKO, Bartosz	POL	2574	37	PGN
20	38	GM	GORSHTEIN, Ido	ISR	2571	½	0 - 1	½	GM	IVANCHUK, Vasyl	UKR	2623	15	PGN
21	22	GM	KUZUBOV, Yuriy	UKR	2600	½	½ - ½	½	GM	PIORUN, Kacper	POL	2568	40	PGN
22	30	GM	KOZAK, Adam	HUN	2586	½	1			bye

Details

Standings after Round 4

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	K	rtg+/-
1	27	GM	JACOBSON, Brandon		USA	2594	3	10,5	10	12,2
2	19	GM	SULEYMANLI, Aydin		AZE	2609	3	10	10	8,4
3	23	GM	PRANAV, V		IND	2597	3	9,5	10	11,7
4	35	GM	HONG, Andrew		USA	2580	3	9,5	10	12
5	9	GM	SJUGIROV, Sanan		HUN	2636	3	9	10	7,6
6	8	GM	MARTINEZ ALCANTARA, Jose Eduardo		MEX	2636	3	8	10	7,2
7	33	GM	DUDIN, Gleb		HUN	2583	3	7,5	10	12,6
8	3	GM	TABATABAEI, M. Amin		IRI	2673	3	7	10	5,5
9	44	GM	ZHU, Jiner	w	CHN	2536	3	7	10	14,2
10	12	GM	CHEPARINOV, Ivan		BUL	2625	2,5	9,5	10	2,4
11	18	GM	MISHRA, Abhimanyu		USA	2610	2,5	9,5	10	2,3
12	2	GM	SADHWANI, Raunak		IND	2676	2,5	7,5	10	0,6
13	4	GM	SHANKLAND, Sam		USA	2670	2,5	7,5	10	0,7
14	42	GM	ADITYA, Mittal		IND	2560	2,5	7,5	10	7,6
15	6	GM	THEODOROU, Nikolas		GRE	2646	2,5	6,5	10	1,5

Details

Round 5 pairings

Bo.	No.		White	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	FED	Rtg	No.
1	27	GM	JACOBSON, Brandon	USA	2594	3		3	GM	TABATABAEI, M. Amin	IRI	2673	3
2	23	GM	PRANAV, V	IND	2597	3		3	GM	MARTINEZ ALCANTARA, Jose Eduardo	MEX	2636	8
3	9	GM	SJUGIROV, Sanan	HUN	2636	3		3	GM	DUDIN, Gleb	HUN	2583	33
4	19	GM	SULEYMANLI, Aydin	AZE	2609	3		3	GM	ZHU, Jiner	CHN	2536	44
5	2	GM	SADHWANI, Raunak	IND	2676	2½		3	GM	HONG, Andrew	USA	2580	35
6	4	GM	SHANKLAND, Sam	USA	2670	2½		2½	GM	CHEPARINOV, Ivan	BUL	2625	12
7	42	GM	ADITYA, Mittal	IND	2560	2½		2½	GM	THEODOROU, Nikolas	GRE	2646	6
8	7	GM	SALEM, A.R. Saleh	UAE	2640	2		2½	GM	MISHRA, Abhimanyu	USA	2610	18
9	29	GM	PRANESH, M	IND	2589	2		2	GM	NIHAL, Sarin	IND	2692	1
10	11	GM	VOLOKITIN, Andrei	UKR	2628	2		2	GM	PICHOT, Alan	ESP	2581	34
11	13	GM	DANESHVAR, Bardiya	IRI	2625	2		2	GM	NARAYANAN, S L	IND	2595	26
12	17	GM	DONCHENKO, Alexander	GER	2616	2		2	GM	ZEMLYANSKII, Ivan	FID	2586	32
13	31	GM	MURADLI, Mahammad	AZE	2586	2		2	GM	GREBNEV, Aleksey	FID	2595	24
14	25	GM	MOTYLEV, Alexander	ROU	2595	2		2	GM	BHARATH, Subramaniyam H	IND	2562	41
15	5	GM	LU, Shanglei	CHN	2647	1½		1½	GM	MENDONCA, Leon Luke	IND	2606	20
16	10	GM	PURANIK, Abhimanyu	IND	2635	1½		1½	GM	PRANAV, Anand	IND	2590	28
17	30	GM	KOZAK, Adam	HUN	2586	1½		1½	GM	HAKOBYAN, Aram	ARM	2625	14
18	15	GM	IVANCHUK, Vasyl	UKR	2623	1½		1½	GM	MOVAHED, Sina	IRI	2558	43
19	36	GM	ITURRIZAGA BONELLI, Eduardo	ESP	2576	1½		1½	GM	DARDHA, Daniel	BEL	2616	16
20	39	GM	KANTOR, Gergely	HUN	2569	1½		1	GM	KUZUBOV, Yuriy	UKR	2600	22
21	37	GM	SOCKO, Bartosz	POL	2574	1		1	GM	PIORUN, Kacper	POL	2568	40
22	38	GM	GORSHTEIN, Ido	ISR	2571	½				bye

Details

Masters Round 4 results

4	4	94	IM	PANDA Sambit	IND	2379	3	½ - ½	2½	GM	SANAL Vahap	TUR	2550	3
4	5	7	GM	MALEK Jan	POL	2526	2½	½ - ½	2½	IM	MOHAMED Anees M	IND	2428	51
4	9	61	IM	BIGALIEV Renat	RUS	2417	2½	½ - ½	2½	IM	ASWATH S	IND	2500	13
4	10	14	GM	HARDAWAY Brewington	USA	2499	2½	1 - 0	2½	IM	AADITYA Dhingra	IND	2394	85
4	11	62	IM	SAHIB Singh	IND	2416	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	GHARIBYAN Mamikon	ARM	2495	15
4	15	34	IM	JUBIN Jimmy	IND	2464	2½	1 - 0	2½	IM	ALIYEV Ravan	AZE	2304	156
4	16	36	GM	PRRANEETH Vuppala	IND	2458	2½	1 - 0	2½	FM	BARADARAN TAMADON Arian	IRI	2304	157
4	19	118	FM	GEORGE SAMIR David	EGY	2345	2½	0 - 1	2½	IM	ANUJ Shrivatri	IND	2452	41
4	21	2	GM	KARTHIK Venkataraman	IND	2556	2	1 - 0	2	FM	YANG Zilong	CHN	2375	99
4	23	84	IM	CHEN Ryo	USA	2395	2	0 - 1	2	IM	ILAMPARTHI A R	IND	2515	9

Details

Standings after Round 4

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	K	rtg+/-
1	27	IM	ZVEREV, Lev		FID	2471	4	12,5	10	11,9
2	16	GM	SIVUK, Vitaly		SWE	2495	4	11	10	11,2
3	94	IM	PANDA, Sambit		IND	2379	3,5	12,5	10	14,9
4	65	IM	SONG, Yuxin	w	CHN	2414	3,5	11,5	10	9,8
5	39	IM	MAHDAVI, Reza		IRI	2454	3,5	11	10	3,7
6	32	IM	ORO, Faustino		ARG	2465	3,5	10,5	10	9,8
7	14	GM	HARDAWAY, Brewington		USA	2499	3,5	10	10	5,5
8	37	IM	CHASIN, Nico		USA	2458	3,5	9,5	10	7,2
9	34	IM	JUBIN, Jimmy		IND	2464	3,5	9	10	7,9
10	41	IM	ANUJ, Shrivatri		IND	2452	3,5	9	10	9

Details

Round 5 pairings

5	2	41	IM	ANUJ Shrivatri	IND	2452	3½	3½	GM	HARDAWAY Brewington	USA	2499	14
5	4	63	IM	PILIPOSYAN Robert	ARM	2415	3½	3½	IM	JUBIN Jimmy	IND	2464	34
5	5	36	GM	PRRANEETH Vuppala	IND	2458	3½	3½	IM	SONG Yuxin	CHN	2414	65
5	6	37	IM	CHASIN Nico	USA	2458	3½	3½	IM	PANDA Sambit	IND	2379	94
5	9	49	IM	KURU Atilla	TUR	2435	3	3	GM	KARTHIK Venkataraman	IND	2556	2
5	11	51	IM	MOHAMED Anees M	IND	2428	3	3	GM	SOKOLOVSKY Yahli	ISR	2539	5
5	13	9	IM	ILAMPARTHI A R	IND	2515	3	3	FM	ASHRAF Artin	IRI	2428	52
5	15	13	IM	ASWATH S	IND	2500	3	3	IM	DAVTYAN Arsen	ARM	2421	57
5	19	24	IM	TAHBAZ Arash	IRI	2477	3	3	IM	SAHIB Singh	IND	2416	62
5	25	105	FM	XIE Felix	NZL	2364	2½	2½	GM	CHANDA Sandipan	IND	2482	20

Details

Links

Tournament Regulations

Fujairah Chess & Culture Club: Official site, fb page, instagram and youtube

Related news:

	Fujairah Global R2: Pranav Venkatesh wins two in-a-row @ 27/08/2025 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Fujairah Global R1: Pranav Venkatesh checkmates Nihal Sarin @ 26/08/2025 by Shahid Ahmed (en)