XTX London Chess Classic Open 2025 R2-3: Praggnanandhaa and Pranav Anand score a hat-trick
GM R Praggnanandhaa and GM Pranav Anand won both of their respective games on the first double round day at XTX Markets London Chess Classic Open 2025. Praggnanandhaa started the day with a nice sacrifice to beat GM Eldar Gasanov (UKR). Then, he got the better of IM Nico Chasin (USA). Initially, the exchange sacrifice in the middlegame did not yield the desired effect. However, in the queen endgame, Nico's inaccurate play landed him in trouble. Pranav outplayed IM Sven Tica (CRO) in Round 2. Then he won a 102-move marathon battle against IM Loic Travadon (FRA). GM Iniyan Pa won both of his games to move to 2.5/3. The coleaders - Praggnanandhaa and Pranav will inevitably clash in Round 4. It starts today at 4 p.m. local time, 9:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Tao Bhokanandh / London Chess Classic
Praggnanandhaa and Pranav are early coleaders
Round 2: Praggnanandhaa - Gasanov: 1-0
GM R Praggnanandhaa (2768) scored a smooth win in Round 2 over GM Eldar Gasanov (UKR, 2447).
Praggnanandhaa had no trouble spotting the nice tactic 18.Bxg6! fxg6 19.e5 Kf7 20.Nf4! White does not need to rush regaining the piece as it is not going anywhere. 20...Rg8 21.exf6 Bxf6 22.Ne4! another beautiful move Be7 23.Nf2 Bd6 24.N4d3 Qd7 25.f4 Ne6 26.Ng4 Kg7 27.Bf6+ Kh7 28.f5 Nf8 29.Be5 Be7 30.fxg6+ Rxg6 31.Rf7+ Kg8 32.Nxh6+ and it's over as Rxh6 33.Rg7+ Kh8 34.Rxe7+ drops the queen.
Pranav - Sven: 1-0
GM Pranav Anand (2581) outplayed IM Sven Tica (CRO, 2441).
FM Kush Bhagat (2381) played well to hold the strong GM Matthieu Cornette (FRA, 2517) to a draw.
GM Iniyan Pa (2601) made a short work of Maxim Farberov (USA, 2133) in just 23 moves.
Round 3: Nico - Praggnanandhaa: 0-1
Praggnanandhaa sacrificed an exchange in the middlegame against IM Nico Chasin (USA, 2512). However, it did not yield anything. His opponent went wrong in the queen endgame.
White needed to ensure the g-pawn does not flow freely. 43.Qe5 would have been a better choice than 43.a6? g4 44.a7 g3 45.Qd3+ g6 46.Qd4 Qb7+ and Black won the game in the next few moves.
Loic - Pranav: 0-1
GM Pranav Anand (2581) won a 102-move long marathon battle against IM Loic Travadon (FRA, 2492) ending with a checkmate by a bishop and knight.
Iniyan - Tarun
IM Tarun Kanyamarala (IRL, 2376) made a mistake 19...Be6? GM Iniyan Pa (2601) had no trouble seizing the upperhand 20.Bxe5 Bxe5 21.f4 cxb3 22.axb3 Bxb3 23.Nc5 Bc3 24.Nxb3 Qb6+ 25.Qf2 Qxf2+ 26.Kxf2 a5 27.Ke3 a4 28.Rxc3! a wise exchange sacrifice to ensure Black's passed pawns on the queenside do not become menacing 28...bxc3 29.Nd4 and White won the game in the next few moves.
Replay all Round 2-3 Open games
Round 3 results
| Bo. | White | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Black | Rtg | PGN | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IM | Chasin, Nico | 2512 | 2 | 0 - 1 | 2 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | 2768 | PGN | ||
| 2 | GM | Fernandez, Daniel H | 2501 | 2 | ½ - ½ | 2 | GM | Yuffa, Daniil | 2618 | PGN | ||
| 3 | IM | Travadon, Loic | 2492 | 2 | 0 - 1 | 2 | GM | Pranav, Anand | 2581 | PGN | ||
| 4 | GM | Wadsworth, Matthew J | 2487 | 2 | ½ - ½ | 2 | GM | Sanal, Vahap | 2546 | PGN | ||
| 5 | GM | Gavrilescu, David | 2542 | 2 | ½ - ½ | 2 | GM | Greenfeld, Alon | 2465 | PGN | ||
| 6 | GM | Gordon, Stephen J | 2465 | 2 | ½ - ½ | 2 | GM | Maze, Sebastien | 2534 | PGN | ||
| 7 | IM | Brunner, Nicolas | 2420 | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | FM | Kazarian, Anna-Maja *) | 2224 | PGN | ||
| 8 | IM | Rozen, Eytan | 2515 | 2 | ½ - ½ | 2 | IM | Czopor, Maciej | 2463 | PGN | ||
| 9 | GM | Ivic, Velimir | 2618 | 1½ | 1 - 0 | 2 | IM | Harvey, Marcus R | 2438 | PGN | ||
| 10 | GM | Iniyan, P | 2601 | 1½ | 1 - 0 | 1½ | IM | Kanyamarala, Tarun | 2376 | PGN |
Standings after Round 3
| Rk. | SNo | Name | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | 2768 | None | 3 | |
| 2 | 5 | GM | Pranav, Anand | 2581 | None | 3 | |
| 3 | 2 | GM | Ivic, Velimir | 2618 | None | 2,5 | |
| 4 | 3 | GM | Yuffa, Daniil | 2618 | None | 2,5 | |
| 5 | 4 | GM | Iniyan, P | 2601 | None | 2,5 | |
| 6 | 6 | GM | Kraemer, Martin | 2571 | Sc Heimbach-Weis-Neuwied | 2,5 | |
| 7 | 7 | GM | Jumabayev, Rinat | 2560 | None | 2,5 | |
| 8 | 9 | GM | Sanal, Vahap | 2546 | None | 2,5 | |
| 9 | 10 | GM | Gavrilescu, David | 2542 | None | 2,5 | |
| 10 | 11 | GM | Maze, Sebastien | 2534 | None | 2,5 |
Round 4 pairings
| Bo. | White | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Black | Rtg | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | 2768 | 3 | 3 | GM | Pranav, Anand | 2581 | |||
| 2 | GM | Mikhalevski, Victor | 2504 | 2½ | 2½ | GM | Ivic, Velimir | 2618 | |||
| 3 | GM | Yuffa, Daniil | 2618 | 2½ | 2½ | IM | Grieve, Harry | 2491 | |||
| 4 | GM | Fernandez, Daniel H | 2501 | 2½ | 2½ | GM | Iniyan, P | 2601 | |||
| 5 | IM | Willow, Jonah B | 2472 | 2½ | 2½ | GM | Kraemer, Martin | 2571 | |||
| 6 | GM | Jumabayev, Rinat | 2560 | 2½ | 2½ | GM | Wadsworth, Matthew J | 2487 | |||
| 7 | FM | Kazarian, Anna-Maja *) | 2224 | 2 | 2 | GM | Gasanov, Eldar | 2447 | |||
| 8 | GM | Sanal, Vahap | 2546 | 2½ | 2½ | IM | Bazakutsa, Svyatoslav | 2478 | |||
| 9 | IM | Czopor, Maciej | 2463 | 2½ | 2½ | GM | Gavrilescu, David | 2542 | |||
| 10 | GM | Maze, Sebastien | 2534 | 2½ | 2½ | IM | Magold, Filip | 2465 |
Links
|
XTX London Chess Classic Open 2025 R1: Praggnanandhaa and Pranav Anand make a winning start
@ 28/11/2025 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |
|
Raunak Sadhwani and Ilya Smirin share first place at XTX Markets London Chess Classic 2024 Masters
@ 10/12/2024 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |
|
XTX Markets London Chess Classic 2024 R3-5: Vidit misses against Adams and Shreyas, Jones stays ahead
@ 04/12/2024 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |
|
XTX Markets London Chess Classic 2024 R1-2: Vidit Gujrathi wins a messy endgame against Andrew Hong
@ 01/12/2024 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |