Each day of the group stage, players play two Fast Classic games (45 minutes plus 30 seconds a move) against the same opponent, with colours reversed. A win is 3 points, a draw 1. On the 13th of November, 10 of the 24 games were decisive.
The fight for world no.1
Magnus Carlsen has been the world no.1 since July 2011. Fifteen years at the top without a break. In Budapest that run is suddenly in danger.
Magnus came into the Total Chess Pilot rated 2823, 40 points ahead of Fabiano Caruana (2783). After three days of the group stage the gap is just 7.2 points on the live rating list. Magnus has drawn five games and lost one, to Haik Martirosyan, and he has dropped 15.8 points to 2807.2. Fabi has won four games and drawn two, and he has gained 17 points to reach exactly 2800.0.
On the third day Fabi beat Vincent Keymer with the black pieces. He took over in the endgame and converted his advantage in 57 moves. Had he won the second game as well, he could have become the world no.1 right there. Keymer held him to a draw in 72 moves.
The closest these two had been before was around their World Championship match in 2018, when the gap was about three points.
On the 14th of November Fabi plays Le Quang Liem, the only player anywhere near him in Group B, while Magnus faces Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The world no.1 spot could change hands any day now.
Haik Martirosyan's win over Magnus played a big part in all this. We brought you the news of that win in a short report, Haik Martirosyan defeats Magnus Carlsen for the first time at Total Chess Pilot 2026. Here is the full story.
Martirosyan beats Magnus
Magnus answered 1.e4 with the Sicilian Najdorf. Haik went for a quiet set-up with g3 and Bg2, and the game was balanced for a long time. Then came this moment.
After the game Haik explained: "after exd5 it was three results game and he was low on time and I started to play with his king and it worked perfect." In a relatively equal position Haik kept playing for a win, while Magnus was down to about a minute on his clock from move 27 onwards.
36...Qb3 was the mistake. Haik brought his last rook into the attack with 37.Re1!, and the black king came under fire: 37...Qf7 38.Qc8+ Kh7 39.Re8 Qd5 40.Rh8+ Kg6 41.Qg4+.
Haik had dreamt of this game since he was a child. "It's very special moment for me. It will be hard to forget in this moment but I have to because I have second game," he told in the interviews. And about his approach: "the strategy was just to play good chess. Try to play good chess because okay if you do some mistakes you will take it immediately."
The second game, with Magnus playing White, was drawn in 34 moves by repetition. Haik is on 10 points and leads Group C. Magnus is fifth with 5 points, and with two days to go he is far from the top.
After winning, Haik came on the ChessBase India live stream along with his fiancee. "Amazing day. I will remember this day in my life," he said. The secret was not to think about the opponent: "I was only thinking to play good chess... because if I all the time think that I'm playing Magnus it can be very bad for me."
His fiancee is studying medicine, and she plays bullet on Chess.com! "She's also supporting me a lot during the tournament," Haik said. "I just need to just play my games." Watch Haik on our stream from 5:27:05.
Arjun beats Wesley So
Arjun Erigaisi had the black pieces against Wesley So in the first game, and it was a tense battle. Wesley won an exchange on move 26.
Arjun had some chances, but then Wesley struck back.
44.Rxh6+!! If 44...gxh6, then 45.Qf6+ and the white queen goes after the black king. Arjun played 44...Kg8, and now Wesley needed to finish it off.
Instead of finishing it off, he faltered with 45.Qd6. Arjun defended, the game went into a long series of queen checks, and the position was equal. Then came the last mistake.
The second game was a quick draw. Quite uncharacteristic of Arjun. But maybe he just wanted a quiet day after all the action that happened in game 1. Arjun is on 9 points, level with Hans Niemann and three behind Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, whom he plays next.
Vaishali's sacrifices
Vaishali lost the first game against Bibisara Assaubayeva. The position was level for a long time, but with seconds on her clock she went wrong around move 39, and Bibisara won in 46 moves.
In the second game Vaishali played an incredible game. She got a big advantage out of the opening with her pawn on e6 stuck deep in Black's camp, and then she started sacrificing.
28.Rxf5! A whole rook. After 28...gxf5 29.Nxf5 the knight jumped into d6 next, and Vaishali gave that up too.
32.Re5!! The last rook comes in. If 32...Qc7, then 33.Rg5+ and it is mate in a few moves. Bibisara took it, 32...Qxe5 33.Qxe5, and Vaishali's queen and bishop were too much for the black king.
This was Vaishali's first win of the Fast Classic. She is on 4 points.
Pragg survives against Artemiev
Pragg drew both his games against Vladislav Artemiev. The first one was intense and lasted 89 moves. Pragg was down to seconds on his clock, and at one point he was in real trouble.
Here 36...g6! would have won material for Black. The pawn on f5 is pinned. While this is very clear that Black is winning, once you see the move, it often is very tricky when you are under extreme time pressure, to change the character of the game in this fashion. Artemiev played 36...Rc8, Pragg got back into the game, and he survived somehow to make a draw. The second game was drawn by repetition in 19 moves.
The four groups after day three
A win is 3 points, a draw is 1. If two players are level, the one who finished higher in the Blitz Swiss is ahead. Every group winner goes to Knockout 1, every runner-up to Knockout 2, and so on.
Group A
Rank | Player | Win | Draw | Loss | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Alireza Firouzja | 3 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
2 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 2 | 3 | 1 | 9 |
3 | Jorden van Foreest | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
4 | Levon Aronian | 1 | 4 | 1 | 7 |
5 | Andrew Hong | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
6 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
Andrew Hong gave Firouzja his first loss of the group stage, and Firouzja hit back in the second game. Van Foreest beat Abdusattorov and drew the second. Duda and Aronian drew twice.
Group B
Rank | Player | Win | Draw | Loss | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Fabiano Caruana | 4 | 2 | 0 | 14 |
2 | Le Quang Liem | 2 | 4 | 0 | 10 |
3 | Richard Rapport | 0 | 5 | 1 | 5 |
4 | Vladislav Artemiev | 0 | 5 | 1 | 5 |
5 | Vincent Keymer | 0 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
6 | R. Praggnanandhaa | 0 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
Le Quang Liem and Rapport drew twice, the second time in 104 moves.
Group C
Rank | Player | Win | Draw | Loss | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Haik Martirosyan | 3 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
2 | Anish Giri | 2 | 3 | 1 | 9 |
3 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 1 | 4 | 1 | 7 |
4 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 1 | 4 | 1 | 7 |
5 | Magnus Carlsen | 0 | 5 | 1 | 5 |
6 | Abhimanyu Mishra | 0 | 5 | 1 | 5 |
Giri drew with Nepomniachtchi and then beat him in 63 moves. Mamedyarov and Abhimanyu Mishra drew twice.
Group D
Rank | Player | Win | Draw | Loss | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 3 | 3 | 0 | 12 |
2 | Hans Niemann | 2 | 3 | 1 | 9 |
3 | Arjun Erigaisi | 2 | 3 | 1 | 9 |
4 | Bibisara Assaubayeva | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
5 | Wesley So | 0 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
6 | R. Vaishali | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
MVL drew with Niemann and then beat him in the clash of the two leaders.
Pairings for the 14th of November
The players listed first have White in game one. The colours are reversed in game two.
Group | Game one (7.30 p.m. IST), White vs Black |
|---|---|
A | Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs Levon Aronian |
A | Alireza Firouzja vs Jan-Krzysztof Duda |
A | Jorden van Foreest vs Andrew Hong |
B | Le Quang Liem vs Fabiano Caruana |
B | Vladislav Artemiev vs Vincent Keymer |
B | Richard Rapport vs R. Praggnanandhaa |
C | Magnus Carlsen vs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov |
C | Anish Giri vs Abhimanyu Mishra |
C | Haik Martirosyan vs Ian Nepomniachtchi |
D | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs Arjun Erigaisi |
D | R. Vaishali vs Wesley So |
D | Hans Niemann vs Bibisara Assaubayeva |
Arjun against MVL is the big one for India: a win in that mini-match could put Arjun right in the race for the top of Group D. Firouzja meets Duda, Caruana meets Le Quang Liem, and Martirosyan defends his lead against Nepomniachtchi.
The first game begins at 7.30 p.m. IST and the second at 11 p.m. IST. You can follow the games live on chessbase.in/live, with commentary on the ChessBase India YouTube channel.
Photo Gallery
Tactics from Budapest
Can you find the moves the players found, and some that they missed? Here are the best tactical moments from the Total Chess Pilot on ChessRanga.
