2nd UzChess Cup R3: Abdusattorov outwits Rapport, emerges early sole leader
Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB) defeated Richard Rapport (HUN) to emerge early sole leader at 2nd UzChess Cup Masters 2025. Abdusattorov was confident going into the relatively balanced bishop vs knight endgame. The Hungarian's blunder allowed the former World Rapid champion to walk away with victory. R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi and Aravindh Chithambaram drew their respective battles against Nodirbek Yakubboev (UZB), Ian Nepomniachtchi and Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI). Javokhir Sindarov (UZB) forced a draw via repetition as his opponent, Shamsiddin Vokhidov (UZB) left without a choice to keep his queen on the board. Round 4 starts tomorrow at 3 p.m. local time, 3:30 p.m. IST. Photos: Shahid Ahmed
Praggnanandhaa, Arjun and Aravindh draw their games
Arjun Erigaisi, Javokhir Sindarov (UZB) and R Praggnanandhaa are trailing the leader by a half point at 2/3 each. GM Nikolas Theodorou (GRE), GM Mukhiddin Madaminov (UZB) and GM Andrew Hong (USA) won their respective games to stay at the top 2.5/3 in the Challengers section. GM Ortik Nigmatov (UZB) gained sole lead by defeating the previous round leader, GM Saparmyrat Atabayev (TKM).
Yakubboev - Praggnanandhaa: 0.5-0.5
Nodirbek Yakubboev (UZB, 2659) played three Classical rated games against R Praggnanandhaa (2767). They had all three different results. Praggnanandhaa scored his first win over Yakubboev in a Classical battle at the beginning of this month.
Yakubboev found a very good resource 15.Nxc6! Qf6 16.Bxe4 dxe4 17.Qxe4 Qe6 18.Ne5 Bd6 19.Qg6+ Qxg6 20.Nxg6 Rg8 21.Bf4 Kf7 22.Bxd6 Kg6 the resultant double rook and opposite color bishop endgame is difficult to win for either side. Draw became the obvious result.
Parham - Aravindh: 0.5-0.5
Aravindh Chithambaram (2749) has a good score against Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI, 2691) in Classical rated games, 3-2 to be exact. Their sixth battle seemed to be heading towards a draw when Parham refused to repeat moves and made a mistake 27.Qa4?
After having 24.Rc6 Rc3 twice on the board, White refused to repeat and went with 27.Qa4? Black had no trouble finding Bd6! 28.Nxd6 Qxc6? instead computer recommends Rxc6 to be better for Black. 29.Qxd4 Rxd3 30.Qxd3 Qxd6 and the game eventually ended in a draw.
Nepomniachtchi - Arjun: 0.5-0.5
Ian Nepomniachtchi (2757) and Arjun Erigaisi (2782) has played plenty of games online. However, this is their first ever Classical rated game. The first 20 moves were played before between Fabiano Caruana (USA) and Jorden van Foreest (NED). Arjun deviated after 20.Bf2
Black played 20...e4 instead of previously played 20...Rf7 and the game meandered into a draw.
Abdusattorov - Rapport: 1-0
Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB, 2767) has never lost a Classical rated game against Richard Rapport (HUN, 2714). His score is 3.5-1.5 against the Hungarian. Abdusattorov won two games and three draws. Both players love to play adventurous chess. The World no.6 mentioned in the post-game interview that he got a bit surprised in the opening as his opponent opted for the Rauzer variation in the Sicilian. He did not check before the game, however, he had prepared a new direction.
18.Kf3 is actually a safe haven for the white king. 18...Rd8 19.Qc2 Qxc2 20.Rxc2 both players obviously wanted to get rid of the queens to avoid increasing the vulnerability of their respective kings. The endgame eventually liquidated into a bishop vs knight.
White was confident about the endgame as he had seen a few bishop vs knight games. Black blundered 38...a5?? 39.Kg5+- and White went on to win the game.
Vokhidov - Sindarov: 0.5-0.5
Shamsiddin Vokhidov (UZB, 2644) understandably played a lot of games against Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2710). The score in Classical battle is 6.5-5.5 in favor of Vokhidov.
White made a thematic exchange sacrifice 13.Rxf6! gxf6 14.Qh5 Bc8 15.Rf1 Be6 16.Rxf6 Ng8 17.Rf3 Nf6 and White's queen is virtually trapped. He has no choice but to repeat the moves and allow a draw to prevent the loss of his queen. 18.Qh6 Ng4 19.Qh5 Nf6 20.Qh6 Ng4 21.Qh5 Nf6 and the game ended in a draw.
For more Round 3 photos, please click here. Interview with Nodirbek Abdusattorov will be published soon, stay tuned.
Replay live stream
Replay Challengers Round 3 games
Replay Futures Round 3 games
Time Control
90 minutes for the first 40 moves + 30 minutes for the rest of the game with 30 seconds increment starting from move one in Masters. For Challengers, Futures and Open, the time control is 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment.
Prizes
The total prize fund is US$ 121500. Masters has $80000, Challengers $25000, Futures $11500 and Open $5000.
Masters Round 3 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 2659 | GM | Yakubboev, Nodirbek | ½ - ½ | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | 2767 | 10 | |||
| 2 | 3 | 2691 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | ½ - ½ | GM | Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr. | 2749 | 1 | |||
| 3 | 4 | 2757 | GM | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | ½ - ½ | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | 2782 | 9 | |||
| 4 | 5 | 2767 | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 1 - 0 | GM | Rapport, Richard | 2714 | 8 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 2644 | GM | Vokhidov, Shamsiddin | ½ - ½ | GM | Sindarov, Javokhir | 2710 | 7 |
Standings after Round 3
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | w-we | K | rtg+/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | UZB | 2767 | 2,5 | 0 | 2,50 | 2 | 0 | 0,5 | 0,68 | 10 | 6,8 | |
| 2 | 9 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | IND | 2782 | 2 | 0 | 2,75 | 1 | 1 | 1,5 | 0,18 | 10 | 1,8 | |
| 3 | 7 | GM | Sindarov, Javokhir | UZB | 2710 | 2 | 0 | 2,50 | 1 | 1 | 0,5 | 0,56 | 10 | 5,6 | |
| 4 | 10 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | IND | 2767 | 2 | 0 | 1,75 | 1 | 0 | 0,5 | 0,15 | 10 | 1,5 | |
| 5 | 2 | GM | Yakubboev, Nodirbek | UZB | 2659 | 1,5 | 0 | 2,00 | 1 | 1 | 0,5 | 0,44 | 10 | 4,4 | |
| 6 | 3 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | IRI | 2691 | 1,5 | 0 | 2,00 | 0 | 0 | 0,5 | 0,23 | 10 | 2,3 | |
| 7 | 1 | GM | Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr. | IND | 2749 | 1 | 0 | 1,75 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -0,67 | 10 | -6,7 | |
| 8 | 4 | GM | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | FID | 2757 | 1 | 0 | 1,50 | 0 | 0 | 0,5 | -0,60 | 10 | -6 | |
| 9 | 8 | GM | Rapport, Richard | HUN | 2714 | 1 | 0 | 1,25 | 0 | 0 | 0,5 | -0,40 | 10 | -4 | |
| 10 | 6 | GM | Vokhidov, Shamsiddin | UZB | 2644 | 0,5 | 0 | 1,00 | 0 | 0 | 0,5 | -0,57 | 10 | -5,7 |
Round 4 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 2767 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | GM | Sindarov, Javokhir | 2710 | 7 | ||||
| 2 | 8 | 2714 | GM | Rapport, Richard | GM | Vokhidov, Shamsiddin | 2644 | 6 | ||||
| 3 | 9 | 2782 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 2767 | 5 | ||||
| 4 | 1 | 2749 | GM | Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr. | GM | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2757 | 4 | ||||
| 5 | 2 | 2659 | GM | Yakubboev, Nodirbek | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | 2691 | 3 |
Challengers Round 3 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 2490 | IM | Suyarov, Mukhammadzokhid | 0 - 1 | GM | Hong, Andrew | 2589 | 10 | |||
| 2 | 3 | 2522 | GM | Sivuk, Vitaly | 0 - 1 | GM | Theodorou, Nikolas | 2613 | 1 | |||
| 3 | 4 | 2536 | GM | Madaminov, Mukhiddin | 1 - 0 | GM | Ma, Qun | 2630 | 9 | |||
| 4 | 5 | 2370 | IM | Tokhirjonova, Gulrukhbegim | 0 - 1 | GM | Ivanchuk, Vasyl | 2634 | 8 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 2539 | GM | Vakhidov, Jakhongir | ½ - ½ | GM | Abasov, Nijat | 2594 | 7 |
Futures Round 3 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 2470 | IM | Begmuratov, Khumoyun | 1 - 0 | IM | Saydaliev, Saidakbar | 2450 | 10 | |||
| 2 | 3 | 2513 | GM | Sychev, Klementy | ½ - ½ | GM | Alekseev, Evgeny | 2520 | 1 | |||
| 3 | 4 | 2517 | GM | Atabayev, Saparmyrat | 0 - 1 | GM | Nigmatov, Ortik | 2474 | 9 | |||
| 4 | 5 | 2515 | GM | Ruck, Robert | ½ - ½ | GM | Chatalbashev, Boris | 2489 | 8 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 2490 | GM | Abdisalimov, Abdimalik | 0 - 1 | GM | Pichot, Alan | 2588 | 7 |
Schedule
Every day from 19th to 26th June 2025, the round starts at 3 p.m. local time, 3:30 p.m. IST. Only the last round will start at 11 a.m. local time, 11:30 a.m. IST.
Links
Uzbekistan Chess Federation: Telegram, fb page and youtube
