6th Stepan Avagyan Memorial R2: Wins allure Praggnanandhaa and Xiangyu
R Praggnanandhaa drew with Jonas Buhl Bjerre (DEN) in Round 2 of 6th Stepan Avagyan Memorial 2025 in Jermuk, Armenia. Praggnanandhaa had a great opportunity against Dane no.1. However, he could not make the most out of it. Xiangyu Xu (CHN) had quite a few opportunities to extend his lead by a full point but he missed them all against Dmitrij Kollars (GER). Aravindh Chithambaram had a well contested draw against Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM). Aram Hakobyan (ARM) and Samuel Sevian (USA) had the longest game of the round. It lasted 93 moves. Round 3 starts today at 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia
Five draws
The second round witnessed five draws. The results do not alone paint the full picture of the games as two of them could have ended decisively. All of them were fighting games.
Praggnanandhaa - Jonas: 0.5-0.5
GM R Praggnanandhaa (2758) faced GM Jonas Buhl Bjerre (DEN, 2641) only once in a Classical rated game, almost a decade ago in their youth. Praggnanandhaa won that. This time also he had good chances of winning the game.
34...Qf6? was an incorrect retreat by black. 35.R1a4 attacking the knight as it has virtually no safe square to go. 35...d5 36.Be2?! instead 36.Bf1 would have been better as can be seen from the game Be2 allowed Black to get back in the game 36...Qe6 attacking the bishop. 37.Qd1 Rxa8 38.Rxa8+ Kh7 39.Bg4? White had to focus on pushing his passed b-pawn 39.Ra4.
Xiangyu - Kollars
27...Ng5 28.Bg4 Ne6 did not help Black in any way. It only helped White to improve his knight 29.Ng6 Rd8 30.Ne7+ Kh8 31.Nxc6 instead 31.Rf1 Nf6 32.Bxe6 fxe6 33.Ng6+ Kh7 34.Nf8+ or 33...Kg8 34.Be7 would have increased White's advantage. Soon White gained an exchange and a decisive advantage.
The above pawn endgame at a first glance seems to be winning for White due to the fact that the white king is superior compared to the black and White always has a b5 break to turn things completely in his way. However, White needed to time b5 correctly. Playing 56.b5? immediately leads to a draw. Find out why and also what White should have done before playing b5 to win the game.
Replay Round 2 live stream
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).
Prizes
The total prize fund is 7450000 AMD (≈ US$ 19325). The top three prizes are 3100000 AMD (≈ US$ 8041), 1 850 000 AMD (≈ US$ 4799) and 1500000 (≈ US$ 3891).
Round 2 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 2623 | GM | Xu Xiangyu | ½ - ½ | GM | Kollars Dmitrij | 2625 | 6 | |||
| 2 | 7 | 2663 | GM | Gledura Benjamin | ½ - ½ | GM | Yakubboev Nodirbek | 2665 | 5 | |||
| 3 | 8 | 2620 | GM | Hakobyan Aram | ½ - ½ | GM | Sevian Samuel | 2694 | 4 | |||
| 4 | 9 | 2758 | GM | Praggnanandhaa R | ½ - ½ | GM | Bjerre Jonas Buhl | 2641 | 3 | |||
| 5 | 1 | 2635 | GM | Hovhannisyan Robert | ½ - ½ | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | 2749 | 2 |
Standings after Round 2
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | GM | Xu Xiangyu | CHN | 2623 | 1,5 | 1,00 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2 | 6 | GM | Kollars Dmitrij | GER | 2625 | 1 | 1,25 | 2 | 0 | |
| 3 | 4 | GM | Sevian Samuel | USA | 2694 | 1 | 1,00 | 1 | 1 | |
| 8 | GM | Hakobyan Aram | ARM | 2620 | 1 | 1,00 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 5 | 3 | GM | Bjerre Jonas Buhl | DEN | 2641 | 1 | 1,00 | 1 | 3 | |
| 7 | GM | Gledura Benjamin | HUN | 2663 | 1 | 1,00 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 7 | 5 | GM | Yakubboev Nodirbek | UZB | 2665 | 1 | 1,00 | 1 | 5 | |
| 9 | GM | Praggnanandhaa R | IND | 2758 | 1 | 1,00 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 9 | 2 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | IND | 2749 | 1 | 0,75 | 1 | 0 | |
| 10 | 1 | GM | Hovhannisyan Robert | ARM | 2635 | 0,5 | 0,50 | 0 | 0 |
Round 3 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 2749 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | GM | Xu Xiangyu | 2623 | 10 | ||||
| 2 | 3 | 2641 | GM | Bjerre Jonas Buhl | GM | Hovhannisyan Robert | 2635 | 1 | ||||
| 3 | 4 | 2694 | GM | Sevian Samuel | GM | Praggnanandhaa R | 2758 | 9 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 2665 | GM | Yakubboev Nodirbek | GM | Hakobyan Aram | 2620 | 8 | ||||
| 5 | 6 | 2625 | GM | Kollars Dmitrij | GM | Gledura Benjamin | 2663 | 7 |
Schedule
| Wednesday | 28 May at 19:00 | Opening Ceremony |
| Thursday | 29 May at 15:00 | Round 1 |
| Friday | 30 May at 15:00 | Round 2 |
| Saturday | 31 May at 15:00 | Round 3 |
| Sunday | 1 June at 15:00 | Round 4 |
| Monday | 2 June at 15:00 | Round 5 |
| Tuesday | 3 June at 15:00 | Round 6 |
| Wednesday | 4 June at 15:00 | Round 7 |
| Thursday | 5 June at 15:00 | Round 8 |
| Friday | 6 June at 11:00 | Round 9 |
| Friday | 6 June at 18:00 | Closing Ceremony |
