Sardinia World Chess Festival 2025 Round 8: Can SL Narayanan stop Christopher Yoo?

by Himank Ghosh - 02/05/2025

Grandmaster Christopher Yoo enters the final round of the Sardinia World Chess Festival 2025 with a half-point lead over the field. He will face GM SL Narayanan with the White pieces in the final round tomorrow! GM SL Narayanan won a wonderful game with the White pieces against GM Luca Moroni. IM Loic Travadon has his GM Norm confirmed for the final round tomorrow, and FM Francesco Bettalli has good chances to score his GM Norm if he can draw against GM Leon Mendonca in the final round tomorrow! Games start from 9 AM local time, 12:30 PM IST. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Christopher Yoo vs SL Narayanan in the final round

Grandmaster Christopher Yoo held a solid draw with the Black pieces today against GM Daniel Dardha. Dardha pressed for some time in the Rook endgame, but Yoo defended staunchly and secured the half point. With this draw, Christopher goes into the final round with a half-point lead over the field!

The top board clash between Grandmaster Daniel Dardha (2650, BEL) and Grandmaster Christopher Yoo (2588, USA) | Photo: Niklesh Jain

IM Loic Travadon (2451, FRA) made a relatively short draw with the Black pieces against IM Miguoel Admiraal (2456, NED). With this result, Loic stays on the chase of Christopher with 6.5/9 points! He has also confirmed his Grandmaster norm with this draw - he just needs to show up and play against Lorenzo Lodici in the final round tomorrow to secure his 1st GM norm, regardless of the game result.

GM Loic Travadon (2451,FRA) deep in thought against IM Miguoel Admiraal (2454, NED). Photo: Niklesh Jain

Grandmaster SL Narayanan scored a strong win with the White pieces against GM Luca Jr Moroni! SL showed fantastic understanding of the position and went on to defeat Luca in just 30 moves, creating a strong attack on the Black King. SL Narayanan is now on 7/9 points, and will face the sole leader GM Christopher Yoo with the Black pieces in the final round tomorrow!

The starting moments of the game between GM SL Narayanan (2601, IND) and GM Moroni Luca Jr. (2546) | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Grandmaster Lorenzo Lodici won a very tense encounter with the White pieces against Grandmaster Harshit Raja. Both players were in mutual time trouble, and Lorenzo managed to outcalculate Harshit from that situation - winning the game in just 33 moves.

GM Lorenzo Lodici (2557, ITA) on 6/9 points now. He will face IM Loic Travadon with the Black pieces in the final round tomorrow | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Replay all the Round 8 Games

Open-A Standings after Round 8

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	K	rtg+/-
1	4	GM	Yoo, Christopher Woojin	USA	2588	7	8	41	34,75	2465	10	18,7
2	16	IM	Travadon, Loic	FRA	2451	6,5	8	42,5	33,00	2433	10	24
3	1	GM	Dardha, Daniel	BEL	2650	6	8	42	29,75	2373	10	-3,8
4	8	GM	Amar, Elham	NOR	2546	6	8	39	28,75	2342	10	-0,3
5	3	GM	Narayanan S, L	IND	2601	6	8	39	27,75	2363	10	-0,2
6	15	IM	Admiraal, Miguoel	NED	2454	6	8	38	26,75	2334	10	8,8
7	6	GM	Samunenkov, Ihor	UKR	2572	6	8	37	27,25	2312	10	-2,5
8	7	GM	Lodici, Lorenzo	ITA	2570	6	8	35	24,75	2260	10	-6
9	2	GM	Mendonca, Leon Luke	IND	2643	5,5	8	42,5	27,00	2399	10	-7,3
10	5	GM	Sonis, Francesco	ITA	2576	5,5	8	42	25,75	2382	10	-3,5
11	28	FM	Bettalli, Francesco	ITA	2355	5,5	8	41,5	28,25	2472	20	54,4
12	9	GM	Sokolovsky, Yahli	ISR	2546	5,5	8	41	27,00	2384	10	-0,4
13	20	IM	Fromm, Marius	GER	2436	5,5	8	36	22,50	2326	10	4,9
14	23	IM	Yaniv, Yuval	ISR	2407	5,5	8	34	21,75	2308	10	5,6
15	25	IM	Kanyamarala, Tarun	IRL	2386	5,5	8	32	20,25	2236	10	0,7
16	33	FM	Xu, Grant	USA	2304	5,5	8	31,5	19,75	2239	20	16,8
17	12	GM	Raja, Harshit	IND	2474	5	8	41,5	23,00	2380	10	1,1
18	27	IM	Kiolbasa, Oliwia	POL	2361	5	8	39,5	22,75	2391	10	13,9
19	10	GM	Moroni, Luca Jr	ITA	2545	5	8	38,5	22,00	2357	10	-7,2
20	43	FM	Zakin, Ilay	ISR	2254	5	8	36,5	20,50	2329	20	35,6

Round 9 Pairings for Open-A

Bo.	No.		White	Gr	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Gr	Rtg	No.
1	4	GM	Yoo, Christopher Woojin		2588	7		6	GM	Narayanan S, L		2601	3
2	16	IM	Travadon, Loic		2451	6½		6	GM	Lodici, Lorenzo		2570	7
3	8	GM	Amar, Elham		2546	6		6	GM	Dardha, Daniel		2650	1
4	6	GM	Samunenkov, Ihor		2572	6		6	IM	Admiraal, Miguoel		2454	15
5	28	FM	Bettalli, Francesco		2355	5½		5½	GM	Mendonca, Leon Luke		2643	2
6	25	IM	Kanyamarala, Tarun		2386	5½		5½	GM	Sokolovsky, Yahli		2546	9
7	20	IM	Fromm, Marius		2436	5½		5½	FM	Xu, Grant		2304	33
8	10	GM	Moroni, Luca Jr		2545	5		5	IM	Kiolbasa, Oliwia		2361	27
9	12	GM	Raja, Harshit		2474	5		5	FM	Noy, Eyal		2346	29
10	38	FM	Urbani, Gabriel		2277	5		5	IM	Lumachi, Gabriele		2443	17
11	32	FM	Kalosha, Zhiulien Oleksii		2315	5		5	IM	Panjwani, Raja		2443	18
12	24	IM	Fataliyeva, Ulviyya		2387	5		5	FM	Adharsh, K		2317	31
13	60	FM	Rosh, Jain		2150	5		5	GM	Ibrayev, Nurlan		2367	26
14	14	IM	Martinovici, Ilia		2459	4½		5	FM	Zakin, Ilay		2254	43
15	13	GM	Knaak, Rainer		2472	4½		4½	GM	Solomon, Kenny		2272	41

Check all the details here

Round 8 Livestream: India 🆚 Netherlands I Leon (2643) vs Miguoel (2454) | Sardinia World Festival 2025 | Video: Hindi ChessBase India

Round 8 Livestream: Yoo 🆚 Dardha I Sardinia world chess festival 2025! | Video: UniChess Italy

Photo and video Gallery

Official Facebook album link

Sushrutha Reddy (1614, IND, on the left) won his 8th consecutive game in the Open C - winning the tournament with a round to spare! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Chess can bring out the weirdest expressions! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

All the players fully focused in the tournament hall | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Official YouTube playlist link

"It feels like a Cinderella story!" | Christopher Yoo takes sole lead at Sardinia Chess 2025| Video: ChessBase India

"OMG !! I Took the h7 Pawn and ....!! – SL Narayanan's Impressive Win | Sardinia World Chess 2025 | Video: ChessBase India

Just Bring Your Pieces and Kill the King! | Game of the Day – Narayanan 🆚 Andrea | Sardinia Chess | Video: ChessBase India

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