Nihal is the victor in a must-win Armageddon

When it comes to speed chess, one should never bet against Nihal Sarin, be it over-the-board or online. He is that good when the time is less. This is Nihal's first rating tournament triumph of the year. We hope this is the first of many to come in the next few months. The third leg of the GP will take place at Brasov in Romania from 15th to 21st July 2024. Use code: CBI20 to get 20% off on registration.

Top 3 (L to R): 2nd GM Imre Balog (HUN) 8.5/10, 1st GM Nihal Sarin 8.5/10 and 3rd GM Jaime Santos Latasa (ESP) 8/10 with Vishy Anand | Photo: Federația Română de Șah

Cluj Grand Prix Rapid is the second event in Romanian GP 2024 | Photo: Federația Română de Șah
Nihal Sarin makes 30 moves in 1 minute against Imre Balog in Armageddon, Commentary by IM Sagar Shah | Video: ChessBase India

Nihal Sarin en route his Armageddon win against GM Imre Balog (HUN) | Photo: Saji Mathew
Nihal Sarin's is both a positional and tactical monster | Nihal vs Nevednichy, Commentary by IM Sagar Shah | Video: ChessBase India

Nihal Sarin in action at various rounds | Photo: Saji Mathew

Nihal Sarin scored an unbeaten 8.5/10, gained 9.1 Elo rating points, won Armageddon and became the champion

Women Top 3 (L to R): 3rd WGM Petra Papp (HUN) 6.5/9, 2nd FM Nadya Toncheva (BUL) 7/9 and 1st IM Irina Bulmaga (ROU) 7.5/9 with Vishy Anand | Photo: Federația Română de Șah

Photo Gallery

Handshake before starting the game | Photo: Federația Română de Șah

Top boards playing on the stage | Photo: Federația Română de Șah

Players, parents and accompanying persons at the closing ceremony | Photo: Federația Română de Șah

The tournament hall at Cluj - BT Arena in Cluj, Romania | Photo: Federația Română de Șah

For more photos, please check the album here.

Vishy Anand to meet Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf in Cluj, Romania | Video: ChessBase India
Nihal Sarin talks about the Gukesh vs Ding Liren World Championship Match | Video: ChessBase India

A total of 314 players including 22 GMs, 11 IMs and 3 WGMs participated from 17 countries across the world in this two-day ten round Rapid Rating Open tournament. It was organized by Federația Română de Șah at Cluj - BT Arena in Cluj, Romania on 13th and 14th June 2024. The time control of the event was 15 minutes + 5 seconds increment per move.

Final standings

Rk.SNoNameFEDRtgClub/CityPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 
13GMNihal, SarinIND26538,5165072574
26GMBalog, ImreHUN26138,5267072551
32GMSantos Latasa, JaimeESP26598066062481
44GMShevchenko, KirillROU2633Csu Ase Bucuresti8064,5062470
512GMErdos, ViktorHUN25198060,5072408
611GMGavrilescu, DavidROU2535Csu Ase Bucuresti8059,5072379
716GMSolodovnichenko, YuriUKR24578058082326
88GMSokolov, IvanNED25988057082321
91GMFedoseev, VladimirSLO27378057072307
1018GMGlek, IgorBEL24157,5063072326

Details

Links

Official site

Federația Română de Șah: fb page, twitter, youtube, instagram, twitch