Fedoseev emerges early sole leader
The first day of the Superbet Rapid 2025 witnessed a lot of exciting games.
Round 1: Fedoseev - Firouzja: 1-1
Vladimir Fedoseev (SLO, 2739) missed every single opportunity to win his game against Alireza Firouzja (FRA, 2754). He was up by a rook in the end, still he couldn't figure out a way.
MVL - Praggnanandhaa: 0-2
R Praggnanandhaa (2684) had never beaten Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 2745) in a Rapid Rating game, until this game. He drew the first one and lost the second. Third time was the charm.
White blundered 34.Qe4?? instead 34.Bf3 was a safer option. Find out the winning continuation which Praggnanandhaa played in the game.
Round 2
Vladimir Fedoseev won an 18-move miniature against David Gavrilescu (ROU, 2506).
Praggnanandhaa - Aravindh: 2-0
R Praggnanandhaa and Aravindh Chithambaram just set the board on fire. Until this game, they only played four Classical rated games against each other, the last one being at Prague Masters last month. All of them ended in a draw.
The game is rich and full of exciting moments. 21...Ne2+! 22.Qxe2 Qxd4 23.exd4 Rxe2 and one can fathom which way the game is heading. Aravindh had a decisive advantage for a great chunk of the game. However, a final mistake by him cost two points.
Round 3: Aravindh - Aronian: 2-0
Aravindh Chithambaram bounced back with a win over Levon Aronian. This was the time they faced each other in a Rapid rated game.
27...Rd4? landed Black in trouble due to 28.Qb2 fork e5 29.cxb6+- Qd6 30.b7 Rb4 31.Qa3 Qb6 32.Rc6 Qxc6 33.Qxb4 Rb8 34.Rb1 Ne8 35.Bd3 Nd6 36.Be4? Black had one last opportunity to save the game Nxe4 37.Qxe4 Qxe4 38.fxe4 Kf8. However, 36...Qc7?? once again, gave White the control back. He went on to win the game, thanks to the b7-passed pawn.
Replay live stream
Schedule and Format
Superbet Rapid and Blitz will have three rounds per day in the Rapid portion from 26th to 28th April. The Blitz event will take place on 29th and 30th April. It will be a double round-robin event for the Blitz which means nine rounds will be played on each day. Round 1 starts at 2 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. It will be a 10-player Round Robin event. Time control for Rapid will be 25 minutes + 10 seconds increment.
Prize
The total prize fund for each of the Rapid and Blitz event is US$ 175000. The top three prizes are US$ 40000, $30000 and $25000.
Replay Round 1-3 games
Round 3 results
Standings after Round 3
