FIDE Grand Swiss R7: Blübaum & Sarin Lead, Vaishali Sole Leader in Women's

Lichess Coverage

Lichess will produce in-depth blog posts with annotations for each round of the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss. WIM Silvia Raluca Sgîrcea will annotate the games from the Women's Grand Swiss and GM Renier Castellanos Rodriguez will annotate the games from the Open Grand Swiss. Lichess will also create videos for each round of the tournament, with interviews and other types of content. Keep an eye on our socials for the videos!

Annotations by GM Renier Castellanos Rodriguez

Annotations by WIM Silvia Raluca Sgîrcea

Open Overview

GM Matthias Blübaum and GM Nihal Sarin share the lead after defeating GM Parham Maghsoodloo and GM Arjun Erigaisi, respectively, while the chasing pack on 5/7 includes seven players: GM Abhimanyu Mishra, GM Parham Maghsoodloo, GM Alireza Firouzja, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, GM Anish Giri, GM Hans Moke Niemann, and GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi.

Open Leaderboard

The Top 10 Boards

GM Nihal Sarin's Slav Defense, Exchange Variation opening choice was not a meek draw offer. Indeed, Sarin was playing for an advantage, and he even found himself worse out of the opening as he went for a strange Fried Fox-like king lift with 10. f3 and 12. Kf2. As the position stabilized, though, Sarin was playing against GM Parham Maghsoodloo's hanging pawns, and the positional pressure soon led to wild tactical complications where Sarin, true to his style, sacrificed an exchange. In severe time pressure, Maghsoodloo blundered with 37...Rxb3??, allowing White's attack to become unstoppable.

GM Parham Maghsoodloo resigning against GM Nihal Sarin
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

GM Arjun Erigaisi's game against GM Matthias Blübaum saw an abrupt and uncharacteristic blunder by Arjun after he thought for about ten minutes on the pawn-grabbing 26. Qxa7??. Unfortunately for Arjun, the move was refuted by three moves, all with similar tactical themes; Blübaum found one of them, 26...Ba8, and converted perfectly.

GM Arjun Erigaisi's vs. GM Matthias Blübaum
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

In a theoretical and forcing line of the Two Knights, Italian Game, GM Alireza Firouzja showed deep preparation as he spent little time in the opening compared to his opponent, GM Nodirbek Yakubboev, who seemed to be recalling his theory. Yakubboev's initiative, despite him being down an exchange and a couple of pawns, was good enough for equality, but tremendous accuracy is required by both sides in this line, and it was Yakubboev who began going astray first, starting with 25...Qc6?! and then 26...Rf8??. Firouzja had to find an important resource in the later 29. d5!, and he was up to the task and won a model game in this line of the Italian.

GM Alireza Firouzja vs. GM Nodirbek Yakubboev
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov came up with novel and intriguing preparation in another Italian Game opening, rapidly pushing his a-pawn against GM M. Amin Tabatabaei. Following his pawn push, Abdusattorov quickly achieved positional gains and played with stunning accuracy, only letting the advantage slip a little bit on move 27, in a position that was somewhere between a queenless middlegame and a proper endgame. However, Abdusattorov's was not exploited by Tabatabaei, and soon enough, Abdusattorov converted.

GM M. Amin Tabatabaei resigning against GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

GM Hans Moke Niemann ended GM Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş's lossless streak, winning in a tactical melee after Erdoğmuş went for the enterprising 10...O-O-O!?. Just one inaccurate move allowed Niemann to sacrifice an entire rook, which was initially just an exchange sacrifice, as he used the initiative generated to obliterate the defenses around Black's king.

GM Hans Moke Niemann vs. GM Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

In another bad result for the youngsters, GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi lost to GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi as the as the latter, just as his compatriot, played an Exchange variation — this time the Exchange variation of the Queen's Gambit. GM Vidit's aggressive kingside expansion soon quieted down to positional rewards as Vidit's pieces looked very harmonious. Maurizzi simply had no way to come back to the game as Vidit played with amazing exactness.

GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi vs. GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

On board 5, GM Nikolas Theodorou and GM Vincent Keymer went for a very correct draw. GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and GM V Pranav also were better against their opponents, GM Shant Sargsyan and GM Jorden van Foreest, respectively, but ultimately could not convert, drawing on move 45 in the former game and move 44 in the latter game. GM Anish Giri also had an advantage against GM Abhimanyu Mishra, potentially a near winning one, but drew after going for the inaccurate 23. f4?!.

GM Anish Giri vs. GM Abhimanyu Mishra
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Notable Games

GM R Praggnanandhaa bounced back from his loss yesterday with a strong positional win against GM Maxim Rodshtein, inching his pawns closer and closer, forcing his opponent to resign after one White pawn appeared on the 6th rank.

GM Ian Nepomniachtchi has moved up to 4.5/7 after a powerful endgame display against GM Rauf Mamedov.

GM Yu Yangyi also won his game and is on 4.5/7 after he defeated GM Leon Luke Mendonca by slowly outplaying him.

As usual, GM Richard Rapport went for a fresh position right out of the opening, encouraging GM Ivan Cheparinov to blunder after accurate bishop play from Rapport.

Flashy Game

GM Awonder Liang sacrificed not one, but two pieces to get to GM Anton Korobov's king.

Women's Overview

GM Vaishali Rameshbabu jumps into the sole lead as GM Kateryna Lagno is half a point behind in second place. Meanwhile, there are four players on 5/7 who are also close to the leaders: GM Antoaneta Stefanova, IM Song Yuxin, GM Bibisara Assaubayeva, and GM Mariya Muzychuk.

Women's Leaderboard

The Top 10 Boards

Following GM Bibisara Assaubayeva's game from round 5, GM Vaishali Rameshbabu and GM Guo Qi played the same line of Petrov's Defense, with Vaishali deviating on move 11 with 11. Bd3. Vaishali proceeded to go for a curious bishop arrangement on the kingside, followed by the interesting pseudo-sacrifice, 18. Bf6!?. Vaishali's position just looked much easier to play, and Guo soon collapsed under the pressure.

GM Vaishali Rameshbabu vs. GM Guo Qi
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

GM Bibisara Assaubayeva clearly has a wide repertoire: after winning with the aforementioned Petrov's Defense in round 5, she employed the English Opening to stunning effect against IM Irina Bulmaga today. She had a small advantage for the entire game, but just as Bulmaga seemed to have almost achieved the coveted draw, Assaubayeva began squeezing water from a stone, forcing her opponent to resign on move 85.

GM Bibisara Assaubayeva vs. IM Irina Bulmaga
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Somehow, GM Mariya Muzychuk also played an early g4 in the Exchange variation of the Queen's Gambit — of course, it was just an interesting chess coincidence, and not a question of Vidit taking inspiration from Mariya, or vice-versa. The opening idea again worked to perfection as Mariya played with machine-like precision, steadily outplaying WIM Afruza Khamdamova, winning a 98% accuracy long game.

GM Mariya Muzychuk vs. WIM Afruza Khamdamova
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva's g5 pawn-push against IM Song Yuxin's castled king may look frightening at first sight, but such aggressive incursions can be deceptive as it turned out that it was Fataliyeva's king, stuck in the center of the board, that was more precariously placed. Song initiated a blazing attack that left no chance for Fataliyeva to fight back.

IM Song Yuxin vs. IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

After her loss in round 6, GM Tan Zhongyi bounced back with a topsy-turvy win against IM Dinara Wagner. Tan was lost soon after the opening, but she clawed her way back and achieved equality, outplaying Wagner twice as Tan blundered her advantage away around move 78, forcing her to win the game a second time.

IM Dinara Wagner vs. GM Tan Zhongyi
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

In a typical Italian Game where White faces a kingside attack, IM Carissa Yip was able to make use of IM Leya Garifullina's king, which, while stuck in the center, had to face pressure along the open e-file. Yip then committed a couple of inaccuracies, allowing Garifullina to come back into the game, but only shortly so as she blundered again on move 35, allowing Yip to commence her winning attacking campaign.

Boards 1, 9, and 10 saw rather uneventful draws, but on board 5, IM Stavroula Tsolakidou had a winning advantage against GM Olga Girya. Unfortunately for Tsolakidou, in an endgame position with only two winning moves — 58. Re4 and 58. Rd4 —, Tsolakidou chose 58. Kf5??, which was only good enough for a draw.

Notable Games

GM Anna Muzychuk's dark square-based destruction of Aleksandra Maltsevskaya's French Defense was simply textbook.

GM Anna Muzychuk vs. GM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Similarly, IM Lu Miaoyi dominated IM Olga Badelka's French Defense on the dark squares.

Flashy Game

GM Elina Danielian's positional queen sacrifce against WGM Anna Shukhman was among the engine's top 3 moves and, more important, extremely aesthetically pleasing.

Pairings for Round 8 (Top 10 Boards)

Open:

Women's: