Fujairah Global R7: Pranav Venkatesh outwits Tabatabaei, emerges sole leader

by Shahid Ahmed - 31/08/2025

GM Pranav Venkatesh defeated his coleader GM M Amin Tabatabaei (IRI) to emerge sole leader at Fujairah Global 2025 Superstars. Pranav played fantastic chess as he punished his opponent's positional mistakes. Pranav moved to 5.5/7, a full point ahead of the rest. Eight players including GM Jiner Zhu (CHN) are at 4.5/7 each. GM Pranesh M, GM Nihal Sarin and GM Aditya Mittal are at 4/7 each. Pranesh played ambitiously against GM Nikolas Thedorou (GRE). The Greece no.1 thwarted Pranesh's all attempts and the game ended in a draw. Aditya had a well contested draw against GM Sam Shankland (USA). In the Masters section, GM Karthik Venkataraman shared the point with GM Brewington Hardaway (USA). IM Jubin Jimmy played a beautiful game to beat GM Vahap Sanal (TUR) and join the lead with Brewington. Round 8 starts today at 5 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Photos: Aditya Sur Roy

Masters: Jubin Jimmy joins the lead with Brewington Hardaway

IM Jubin Jimmy and GM Brewington Hardaway (USA) are the coleaders in the Masters section. They both are at 6/7 each and will inevitably clash in the penultimate eighth round. IM Aaditya Dhingra defeated IM Mohamed Anees M to move to 5.5/7, same as Karthik.

Superstars: GM Pranav Venkatesh is the sole leader 5.5/7

Pranav Venkatesh - Tabatabaei

Position after 25.Be7

GM M Amin Tabatabaei (IRI, 2673) misdirected his knight when he started maneuvering it 23...Nd7 24.Bd6 Nf6? 25.Be7 Bf8? 26.Bxf8 Rxf8 27.Qd6 Qg5 28.Rf4 b4 29.h4 Qa5 30.Rdf1 White is focusing his attack on the kingside, besides the fact that moving the c3-knight is not an option. 30...Qa7+ 31.Kh1 bxc3 32.Rxf6 Rxf6 33.Rxf6 Qd7 34.Qe5 White obviously does not want to trade the queens right away as it does no good. 34...Qd1+ 35.Kh2 Bd7 36.Nf4 Qg4 37.Nxe6 Qxh4+ 38.Kg1 Qe1+ 39.Rf1 Qe3+ 40.Rf2 Qc1+ 41.Kh2 Qh6+ 42.Kg3 to stop the incessant checks. 42...Qe3+ 43.Rf3 Qe1+ 44.Kg4 White has no problem walking his up. 42...Re8 43.Qg5 White forces the queen trade as the resultant endgame is winning for him. 43...Qxg5+ 44.Nxg5 h6 45.Nh7! another fantastic move which forces the trade Kxh7 46.Rf7+ and White went on to win the game. GM Pranav Venkatesh (2597) played beautiful chess to beat his coleader and become the sole leader himself.

GM Pranav Venkatesh played beautiful chess to beat GM M Amin Tabatabaei (IRI) | Photo: Anna Shtourman

GM Jiner Zhu (CHN) continues her unbeaten run as she drew against GM Sanan Sjugirov (HUN) | Photo: Anna Shtourman

Suleymanli - Abhimanyu Mishra

Position after 35.Nd4

GM Aydin Suleymanli (AZE, 2609) found himself in deep trouble in the middlegame. GM Abhimanyu Mishra (USA, 2610) needed to find 35...b3! and things could have finished faster. Even in the endgame, Abhimanyu found himself another opportunity.

Position after 91...Rc8

92.g7 Rxc2 93.g8Q d1Q 93.Qg3+ and the game ends in a draw as it happned later in the game. However, 92.Bd1?? created the final opportunity for Black. 92...Ra8+! 93.Kb4 Rg8 and Black would have won. Instead, 92...Rc1?? allowed White to escape with a draw 93.g7 Rxd1 94.g8Q Ra1+ 95.Kb6 d1Q 96.Qe6+ and the game eventually ended in a draw.

GM Abhimanyu Mishra (USA) a couple of great opportunities to win against GM Aydin Suleymanli (AZE)

GM Alexander Donchenko (GER) - GM Nihal Sarin: 0.5-0.5

GM Aditya Mittal played a well contested draw against GM Sam Shankland (USA)

GM Pranesh M played bravely against the Greece no.1 - GM Nikolas Theodorou who thwarted all attempts and the game ended in a draw

Masters: Karthik draws against Brewington, Jubin stuns Vahap

GM Karthik Venkataraman drew against GM Brewington Hardaway (USA) to move to 6/7

Vahap - Jubin

Position after 20...e5!

GM Vahap Sanal (TUR, 2550) needed to trade his knight with the bishop. Thus, 20.Qg3? allowed e5! a nice pawn sacrifice by IM Jubin Jimmy (2464) to open the e-file as the king is still in the middle 21.Qxe5 Rae8 22.Kf2 Nc6 23.Nxc6 bxc6 24.Qg3 Be4 25.Bf4 Rf5 26.h5 Qb7 27.b3 Qf7 28.Rh4 Bd3 29.g6 Qf6 30.gxh7+ Kh8 31.Kg1?? Rf8!-+ and Black went on to win the game.

IM Jubin Jimmy played a great game to beat GM Vahap Sanal (TUR) and become coleader with Brewington with a score 6/7 each

IM Aaditya Dhingra's attack was too strong for IM Mohamed Anees M

L to R: GM Alan Pichot (ESP), GM Ivan Cheparinov (BUL), Patricia Claros Aguilar and GM Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonneli (ESP)

Round 7 in progress

Ceremonial first move of Round 7 | Photo: Anna Shtourman

Round 7 starts

Our very own, Broadcast expert - IA Vivek Sohani and ChessBase India Hindi Head - FI Niklesh Jain | Photo: Anna Shtourman

For more Round 7 Superstars, Masters and Open photos, please click at the respective links.

Replay live stream

Replay Round 7 live commentary by Angelika Valkova (UKR) and GM Viorel Iordachescu (MDA) | Video: Fujairah Chess & Culture Club

Replay Round 7 Superstars games

Replay Round 7 Masters games

Round 7 Superstars results

Bo.	No.		White	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	FED	Rtg	No.
1	23	GM	PRANAV, V	IND	2597	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	TABATABAEI, M. Amin	IRI	2673	3
2	35	GM	HONG, Andrew	USA	2580	4	½ - ½	4	GM	MARTINEZ ALCANTARA, Jose Eduardo	MEX	2636	8
3	9	GM	SJUGIROV, Sanan	HUN	2636	4	½ - ½	4	GM	ZHU, Jiner	CHN	2536	44
4	19	GM	SULEYMANLI, Aydin	AZE	2609	4	½ - ½	4	GM	MISHRA, Abhimanyu	USA	2610	18
5	13	GM	DANESHVAR, Bardiya	IRI	2625	3½	½ - ½	4	GM	JACOBSON, Brandon	USA	2594	27
6	17	GM	DONCHENKO, Alexander	GER	2616	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	NIHAL, Sarin	IND	2692	1
7	42	GM	ADITYA, Mittal	IND	2560	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	SHANKLAND, Sam	USA	2670	4
8	29	GM	PRANESH, M	IND	2589	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	THEODOROU, Nikolas	GRE	2646	6
9	5	GM	LU, Shanglei	CHN	2647	3	½ - ½	3½	GM	CHEPARINOV, Ivan	BUL	2625	12
10	2	GM	SADHWANI, Raunak	IND	2676	3	0 - 1	3	GM	PICHOT, Alan	ESP	2581	34
11	7	GM	SALEM, A.R. Saleh	UAE	2640	3	½ - ½	3	GM	GREBNEV, Aleksey	FID	2595	24
12	11	GM	VOLOKITIN, Andrei	UKR	2628	3	½ - ½	3	GM	MURADLI, Mahammad	AZE	2586	31
13	15	GM	IVANCHUK, Vasyl	UKR	2623	3	0 - 1	3	GM	ZEMLYANSKII, Ivan	FID	2586	32
14	33	GM	DUDIN, Gleb	HUN	2583	3	½ - ½	2½	GM	MENDONCA, Leon Luke	IND	2606	20
15	10	GM	PURANIK, Abhimanyu	IND	2635	2½	1 - 0	2½	GM	ITURRIZAGA BONELLI, Eduardo	ESP	2576	36
16	43	GM	MOVAHED, Sina	IRI	2558	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	HAKOBYAN, Aram	ARM	2625	14
17	30	GM	KOZAK, Adam	HUN	2586	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	DARDHA, Daniel	BEL	2616	16
18	25	GM	MOTYLEV, Alexander	ROU	2595	2½	1 - 0	2½	GM	PIORUN, Kacper	POL	2568	40
19	37	GM	SOCKO, Bartosz	POL	2574	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	NARAYANAN, S L	IND	2595	26
20	28	GM	PRANAV, Anand	IND	2590	2	½ - ½	2½	GM	BHARATH, Subramaniyam H	IND	2562	41
21	38	GM	GORSHTEIN, Ido	ISR	2571	1½	½ - ½	2	GM	KUZUBOV, Yuriy	UKR	2600	22
22	39	GM	KANTOR, Gergely	HUN	2569	1½	1			bye

Details

Standings after Round 7

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	K	rtg+/-
1	23	GM	PRANAV, V		IND	2597	5,5	29	10	23,2
2	27	GM	JACOBSON, Brandon		USA	2594	4,5	31	10	13,7
3	19	GM	SULEYMANLI, Aydin		AZE	2609	4,5	30	10	8,2
4	3	GM	TABATABAEI, M. Amin		IRI	2673	4,5	28	10	2,9
5	8	GM	MARTINEZ ALCANTARA, Jose Eduardo		MEX	2636	4,5	28	10	5,2
6	9	GM	SJUGIROV, Sanan		HUN	2636	4,5	28	10	6
7	35	GM	HONG, Andrew		USA	2580	4,5	28	10	13,5
8	44	GM	ZHU, Jiner	w	CHN	2536	4,5	27,5	10	17,2
9	18	GM	MISHRA, Abhimanyu		USA	2610	4,5	26,5	10	8,6
10	29	GM	PRANESH, M		IND	2589	4	26,5	10	10,5
11	1	GM	NIHAL, Sarin		IND	2692	4	26	10	-4,3
12	4	GM	SHANKLAND, Sam		USA	2670	4	26	10	-2,2
13	12	GM	CHEPARINOV, Ivan		BUL	2625	4	26	10	2,4
14	42	GM	ADITYA, Mittal		IND	2560	4	26	10	11,2
15	13	GM	DANESHVAR, Bardiya		IRI	2625	4	25,5	10	2,4

Details

Round 8 pairings

Bo.	No.		White	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	FED	Rtg	No.
1	18	GM	MISHRA, Abhimanyu	USA	2610	4½		5½	GM	PRANAV, V	IND	2597	23
2	3	GM	TABATABAEI, M. Amin	IRI	2673	4½		4½	GM	HONG, Andrew	USA	2580	35
3	8	GM	MARTINEZ ALCANTARA, Jose Eduardo	MEX	2636	4½		4½	GM	SJUGIROV, Sanan	HUN	2636	9
4	27	GM	JACOBSON, Brandon	USA	2594	4½		4½	GM	SULEYMANLI, Aydin	AZE	2609	19
5	1	GM	NIHAL, Sarin	IND	2692	4		4½	GM	ZHU, Jiner	CHN	2536	44
6	32	GM	ZEMLYANSKII, Ivan	FID	2586	4		4	GM	SHANKLAND, Sam	USA	2670	4
7	6	GM	THEODOROU, Nikolas	GRE	2646	4		4	GM	DONCHENKO, Alexander	GER	2616	17
8	12	GM	CHEPARINOV, Ivan	BUL	2625	4		4	GM	DANESHVAR, Bardiya	IRI	2625	13
9	34	GM	PICHOT, Alan	ESP	2581	4		4	GM	PRANESH, M	IND	2589	29
10	10	GM	PURANIK, Abhimanyu	IND	2635	3½		4	GM	ADITYA, Mittal	IND	2560	42
11	5	GM	LU, Shanglei	CHN	2647	3½		3½	GM	VOLOKITIN, Andrei	UKR	2628	11
12	26	GM	NARAYANAN, S L	IND	2595	3½		3½	GM	SALEM, A.R. Saleh	UAE	2640	7
13	24	GM	GREBNEV, Aleksey	FID	2595	3½		3½	GM	DUDIN, Gleb	HUN	2583	33
14	31	GM	MURADLI, Mahammad	AZE	2586	3½		3½	GM	MOTYLEV, Alexander	ROU	2595	25
15	14	GM	HAKOBYAN, Aram	ARM	2625	3		3	GM	IVANCHUK, Vasyl	UKR	2623	15
16	16	GM	DARDHA, Daniel	BEL	2616	3		3	GM	MOVAHED, Sina	IRI	2558	43
17	41	GM	BHARATH, Subramaniyam H	IND	2562	3		3	GM	KOZAK, Adam	HUN	2586	30
18	20	GM	MENDONCA, Leon Luke	IND	2606	3		2½	GM	SOCKO, Bartosz	POL	2574	37
19	22	GM	KUZUBOV, Yuriy	UKR	2600	2½		2½	GM	PRANAV, Anand	IND	2590	28
20	39	GM	KANTOR, Gergely	HUN	2569	2½		2	GM	GORSHTEIN, Ido	ISR	2571	38
21	40	GM	PIORUN, Kacper	POL	2568	2½				bye

Details

Masters Round 7 results

7	1	14	GM	HARDAWAY Brewington	USA	2499	5½	½ - ½	5	GM	KARTHIK Venkataraman	IND	2556	2
7	2	3	GM	SANAL Vahap	TUR	2550	5	0 - 1	5	IM	JUBIN Jimmy	IND	2464	34
7	6	13	IM	ASWATH S	IND	2500	4½	0 - 1	4½	FM	ASHRAF Artin	IRI	2428	52
7	9	29	IM	TSARUK Maksim	FID	2470	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	SOHAM Kamotra	IND	2407	74
7	12	85	IM	AADITYA Dhingra	IND	2394	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	MOHAMED Anees M	IND	2428	51
7	15	71	IM	JAIN Kashish Manoj	IND	2408	4	1 - 0	4	GM	BELLAHCENE Bilel	ALG	2488	18
7	16	72	IM	KUSHAGRA Mohan	IND	2408	4	1 - 0	4	IM	RACZEK Krzysztof	POL	2487	19
7	17	80	IM	SHAHIL Dey	IND	2401	4	½ - ½	4	IM	DAVTYAN Artur	ARM	2479	22
7	18	24	IM	TAHBAZ Arash	IRI	2477	4	0 - 1	4	IM	PANDA Sambit	IND	2379	94
7	21	36	GM	PRRANEETH Vuppala	IND	2458	4	½ - ½	4	IM	MANISH Anto Cristiano F	IND	2352	112

Details

Standings after Round 7

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	K	rtg+/-
1	14	GM	HARDAWAY, Brewington		USA	2499	6	34,5	10	15,5
2	34	IM	JUBIN, Jimmy		IND	2464	6	30,5	10	17,6
3	16	GM	SIVUK, Vitaly		SWE	2495	5,5	33	10	10,5
4	37	IM	CHASIN, Nico		USA	2458	5,5	31,5	10	11,7
5	32	IM	ORO, Faustino		ARG	2465	5,5	31	10	13,6
6	85	IM	AADITYA, Dhingra		IND	2394	5,5	30,5	10	21,9
7	2	GM	KARTHIK, Venkataraman		IND	2556	5,5	30	10	7,1
8	8	IM	SAMADOV, Read		AZE	2522	5,5	30	10	8,1
9	29	IM	TSARUK, Maksim		FID	2470	5,5	27,5	10	10,3
10	54	GM	ROZUM, Ivan		RUS	2426	5,5	26,5	10	15,2

Details

Round 8 pairings

8	1	34	IM	JUBIN Jimmy	IND	2464	6	6	GM	HARDAWAY Brewington	USA	2499	14
8	2	2	GM	KARTHIK Venkataraman	IND	2556	5½	5½	IM	CHASIN Nico	USA	2458	37
8	6	32	IM	ORO Faustino	ARG	2465	5½	5½	IM	AADITYA Dhingra	IND	2394	85
8	8	5	GM	SOKOLOVSKY Yahli	ISR	2539	5	5	IM	JAIN Kashish Manoj	IND	2408	71
8	9	15	GM	GHARIBYAN Mamikon	ARM	2495	5	5	IM	KUSHAGRA Mohan	IND	2408	72
8	11	94	IM	PANDA Sambit	IND	2379	5	5	IM	SAPENOV Daniyal	KAZ	2429	50
8	15	101	IM	GASPARYAN Erik R.	ARM	2372	4½	4½	IM	ILAMPARTHI A R	IND	2515	9
8	16	104	IM	VIANI Antonio Dcunha	IND	2364	4½	4½	IM	ASWATH S	IND	2500	13
8	18	119	IM	MOKSH Amit Doshi	IND	2344	4½	4½	IM	STRIBUK Artiom	FID	2474	25
8	21	123	FM	HAKOBYAN Eduard	USA	2339	4½	4½	GM	PRRANEETH Vuppala	IND	2458	36

Details

Links

Tournament Regulations

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