Sardinia World Chess Festival 2025 Round 7: Christopher Yoo takes the sole lead

by Himank Ghosh - 01/05/2025

The 7th round of the Sardinia World Chess Festival 2025 saw the emergence of a Sole leader for the first time in this event! GM Christopher Yoo defeated GM Francesco Sonis to take the sole leader with an extraordinary 6.5/7 points. IM Miguoel Admiral took down GM Leon Mendonca with the Black pieces in a wild game full of ups and downs. GMs Harshit Raja and SL Narayanan are the top two Indian players at the moment with 5/7 points each. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Christopher Yoo keeps winning, becomes the sole leader

Grandmaster Christopher Yoo is in scintillating form in the Sardinia World Chess Festival 2025. In the 7th round, Christopher scored a dominating win over GM Francesco Sonis with the White pieces! While the position was a bit unclear out of the opening, Christopher firmly took control in the middlegame, calculated precisely, and went on to win the game comfortably.

The starting moments of the game between Christopher Yoo (2588, USA) and Francesco Sonis (2576, ITA) | Photo: Niklesh Jain

One of the longest games of the round took place on Board 3 - GM Leon Mendonca vs IM Miguoel Admiraal. The game went on to have a wild finish - with both players in severe time trouble, Leon blundered consecutively in a completely winning position to lose the game! Migouel spotted his chance well, took the opportunity and finished the job.

GM Leon Mendonca (2643, IND) up against IM Miguoel Admiraal (2454, NED). Photo: Niklesh Jain

In the 7th round, GM SL Narayanan came back to winning ways! SL played a very nice game with the Black pieces to defeat IM Andrea Favaloro in just 35 moves.

GM SL Narayanan (2601, IND) deep in thought against IM Andrea Favolaro (2413) | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Grandmaster Harshit Raja played a very nice game with the White pieces to score a comfortable win against his compatriot, FM Adharsh K.

GM Harshit Raja (2474, IND) writing down his moves against FM Adharsh K (2322, IND) | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Replay all the Round 7 Games

Open-A Standings after Round 7

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	K	rtg+/-
1	4	GM	Yoo, Christopher Woojin	USA	2588	6,5	7	30	27,00	2439	10	17,8
2	16	IM	Travadon, Loic	FRA	2451	6	7	33	27,00	2430	10	24
3	1	GM	Dardha, Daniel	BEL	2650	5,5	7	31,5	23,50	2342	10	-2,9
4	15	IM	Admiraal, Miguoel	NED	2454	5,5	7	27,5	20,50	2317	10	8,8
5	5	GM	Sonis, Francesco	ITA	2576	5	7	34	21,50	2386	10	-0,7
6	28	FM	Bettalli, Francesco	ITA	2355	5	7	32,5	23,00	2458	20	48,8
7	9	GM	Sokolovsky, Yahli	ISR	2546	5	7	31	21,50	2376	10	1,1
8	3	GM	Narayanan S, L	IND	2601	5	7	31	21,00	2337	10	-4,4
9	12	GM	Raja, Harshit	IND	2474	5	7	31	19,50	2353	10	4,8
10	8	GM	Amar, Elham	NOR	2546	5	7	30,5	21,25	2338	10	-3
11	27	IM	Kiolbasa, Oliwia	POL	2361	5	7	30	20,50	2365	10	16,2
12	10	GM	Moroni, Luca Jr	ITA	2545	5	7	28,5	18,50	2322	10	-3
13	7	GM	Lodici, Lorenzo	ITA	2570	5	7	28	18,50	2230	10	-9,7
14	6	GM	Samunenkov, Ihor	UKR	2572	5	7	27	18,50	2305	10	-4,8
15	26	GM	Ibrayev, Nurlan	KAZ	2367	5	7	26,5	16,75	2316	10	12
16	38	FM	Urbani, Gabriel	ITA	2277	5	7	26,5	16,50	2307	40	70
17	20	IM	Fromm, Marius	GER	2436	5	7	26	16,75	2295	10	3,4
18	2	GM	Mendonca, Leon Luke	IND	2643	4,5	7	33	18,50	2416	10	-8,3
19	40	FM	Perossa, Nicolas	ITA	2274	4,5	7	31	17,25	2285	20	22,4
20	14	IM	Martinovici, Ilia	MDA	2459	4,5	7	29,5	18,00	2301	10	-3,9

Round 8 Pairings for Open-A

Bo.	No.		White	Gr	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Gr	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Dardha, Daniel		2650	5½		6½	GM	Yoo, Christopher Woojin		2588	4
2	15	IM	Admiraal, Miguoel		2454	5½		6	IM	Travadon, Loic		2451	16
3	3	GM	Narayanan S, L		2601	5		5	GM	Moroni, Luca Jr		2545	10
4	5	GM	Sonis, Francesco		2576	5		5	FM	Bettalli, Francesco		2355	28
5	27	IM	Kiolbasa, Oliwia		2361	5		5	GM	Samunenkov, Ihor		2572	6
6	7	GM	Lodici, Lorenzo		2570	5		5	GM	Raja, Harshit		2474	12
7	26	GM	Ibrayev, Nurlan		2367	5		5	GM	Amar, Elham		2546	8
8	9	GM	Sokolovsky, Yahli		2546	5		5	IM	Fromm, Marius		2436	20
9	2	GM	Mendonca, Leon Luke		2643	4½		5	FM	Urbani, Gabriel		2277	38
10	25	IM	Kanyamarala, Tarun		2386	4½		4½	IM	Martinovici, Ilia		2459	14
11	17	IM	Lumachi, Gabriele		2443	4½		4½	FM	Kalosha, Zhiulien Oleksii		2315	32
12	33	FM	Xu, Grant		2304	4½		4½	IM	Van Der Lende, Ilias		2410	22
13	23	IM	Yaniv, Yuval		2407	4½		4½	FM	Perossa, Nicolas		2274	40
14	13	GM	Knaak, Rainer		2472	4		4½	FM	Rosh, Jain		2150	60
15	18	IM	Panjwani, Raja		2443	4		4	FM	Haver, Bas		2281	37

Check all the details here

Round 7 Livestream: India 🆚 Netherlands I Leon (2643) vs Miguoel (2454) | Sardinia World Festival 2025 | Video: Hindi ChessBase India

Round 7 Livestream: Yoo 🆚 Sonis I Sardinia world chess festival 2025 ! | Video: UniChess Italy

Photo and video Gallery

Official Facebook album link

Cesare and Riccardo from the organizing Team - all smiles! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

After 7 rounds of play, Susrutha Reddy (1814, IND) is leading the Open C with a perfect 7/7 points! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

IM Oliwia Kiolbasa (2361, POL) continues her impressive run - she drew against GM Elham Amar today! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Official YouTube playlist link

It is hard to sleep after such a game | Leon Mendonca vs Miguoel Admiraal | Sardinia Chess 2025| Video: ChessBase India

Official Tournament website

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