Loic Travadon wins 32nd Graz Open 2026, Lalit Babu MR second

by Devansh Singh - 21/02/2026

After the final round at the International Chess Open Graz 2026 Group A, it was a 3-way tie for first place. Loic Travadon scored an unbeaten 7.5/9 points to win the tournament. GM Lalit Babu MR of India, and IM Roman Dehtiarov of Ukraine also scored an unbeaten 7.5/9 points to secure second and third position respectively, on tiebreak scores. In the last round of the event, Loic Travadon and Lalit Babu drew their game, and this result helped Loic win the event. There were sensational 6 IM norms and a GM norm scored in the tournament. The total prize money of the event was €12.000, and the top 3 prizes were €1500, €1000, and €800. The tournament was organized at Novapark Flugzeughotel Graz, Austria, from 14th to 20th of February 2026. Photos: Internationales Schachopen Graz

Four Indian players in the top 10

At this very strong event with a rating average of 2203, 4 Indian players managed to get into the top 10 rankings after the final round. GM Lalit Babu MR secured second place with 7.5/9 points, GM Pranav Anand, GM Raja Rithvik R, and GM Pranesh M scored 7/9 points to finish in 8th to 10th positions, respectively. All these players were also unbeaten in the event.

In the last round, Lalit Babu drew against Loic Travadon, Raja Rithvik drew against Dehtiarov Roman, and the top 2 seeded Pranesh M and Pranav Anand won their respective games.

Champion: IM Loic Travadon (France) secured the first place and prize money of €1500

Runner up: GM Lalit Babu MR (India) increased his rating by 17 points and played with the performance rating of 2667

Second Runner up: Dehtiarov Roman (Ukraine)

Top 3 finishers with the Tournament director (IO Mag. Andrea Schmidbauer) and the Chief Arbiter (IA Manfred Mussnig)

GM Lalit Babu MR before the start of the last round

GM Lalit Babu MR scored an unbeaten 7.5/9 points to secure second place, and he also increased his rating by 20 points

Round 7: Lalit Babu MR vs Socko Bartosz (1-0)

Check out the game below

Tournament hall at NOVAPARK Flugzeughotel Graz

Replay all the games of Lalit Babu MR

And the final round starts..

GM Pranav Anand scored an unbeaten 7/9 points to secure 8th place

GM Raja Rithvik R also scored an unbeaten 7/9 points to secure 9th place

GM Pranesh M was not available for starting 2 rounds, and he scored 6.5 in his next 7 games to secure 10th place

IM Vantika Agrawal scored 6/9 points

British sensation Bodhana Sivanandan scored 5/9 points to increase her rating by 102 points!

A total of 275 players, including 31 Indian players, took part in this event, and the time control was 90 minutes plus 15 minutes from the 40th move for the entire game, with a time bonus of 30 seconds per move from the 1st move.

Replay all available games

Photo Gallery: Here

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	Rp	K	rtg+/-
1	11	IM	Travadon, Loic			FRA	2483		7,5	0	49,5	53,5	2666	10	19,8
2	7	GM	Lalit, Babu M R			IND	2511		7,5	0	48,5	51,5	2667	10	16,9
3	21	IM	Dehtiarov, Roman	U18		UKR	2430		7,5	0	44,5	48,5	2623	10	20,6
4	10	GM	Shengelia, David			AUT	2487	Sk Austria Wien	7	0	50	53	2584	10	10,6
5	3	GM	Socko, Bartosz			POL	2580		7	0	48,5	52,5	2580	10	1
6	6	IM	Chasin, Nico			USA	2523		7	0	47,5	51	2520	10	2,7
7	40	IM	Martins, Bruno Andre Leite			POR	2376		7	0	46,5	50,5	2595	20	50,2
8	2	GM	Pranav, Anand			IND	2606		7	0	46,5	49	2559	10	-3,8
9	4	GM	Raja, Rithvik R			IND	2535		7	0	45,5	49,5	2531	10	0,3
10	1	GM	Pranesh, M			IND	2627		7	0	40,5	47,5	2694	10	5,6
11	5	GM	Klimkowski, Jan			POL	2532		6,5	0	47	52	2458	10	-6,4
12	49	FM	Oktem, Ege Tuna	U18		TUR	2356		6,5	0	45,5	49,5	2505	20	36,8
13	35	FM	Sherman, Raem			ISR	2388		6,5	0	42,5	46,5	2421	20	9
14	19	GM	Hamitevici, Vladimir			MDA	2433		6,5	0	41,5	45,5	2432	10	0,5
15	45	WGM	Nurman, Alua		w	KAZ	2363		6,5	0	41,5	45,5	2419	20	15

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