It was a round of Dutch Success - both Anish Giri and Jorden van Foreest scored wins in Round 3 of the Grand Chess Tour Super Chess Classic 2026! The other 3 games all ended in a draw.
Jorden put pressure on the board as well as the clock, outplaying Bogdan-Daniel Deac with the Black pieces and finishing off with some nice tactics. Anish played on against Firouzja till the 6th hour, and a late blunder by Firouzja with very little time on the clock decided the game - Anish found the winning sequence, forcing resignation in a few moves.
Praggnanandhaa pressed for a long time in a pawn up endgame against Vincent Keymer, but Vincent defended staunchly and held a draw.
Jorden, Praggnanandhaa, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish and Vincent Keymer are all leading now with 2.5/3 points after 3 rounds of play. Here are the pairings for Round 4:
Wesley So vs Bogdan-Daniel Deac
Jorden van Foreest vs R. Praggnanandhaa
Vincent Keymer vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Javokhir Sindarov vs Anish Giri
Fabiano Caruana vs Alireza Firouzja
Photos: Lennart Ootes/ Grand Chess Tour, Abhyudaya Ram/ ChessBase India
#chess #ChessBaseIndia #grandchesstour #anishgiri
After 5 draws in the first round, the 2nd round of the Grand Chess Tour Super Chess Classic was an explosive one with 3 decisive games! Praggnanandhaa, Vincent Keymer and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave scored wins, and are co-leading now with 1.5/2 points.
Pragg scored a fantastic win over Javokhir Sindarov with the Black pieces. Vincent found some nice tactics to create a strong mating attack and defeat Bogdan-Daniel Deac! MVL came out of initial difficulties in the opening to defeat Alireza Firouzja in a wild battle.
Anish Giri, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana and Jorden van Foreest are 4 players currently on 1/2 points with 2 draws. Check the complete standings on the 2nd slide! This is how the pairings look for Round 3 today, starting from 6:30 PM IST:
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs Javokhir Sindarov
Anish Giri vs Alireza Firouzja
Wesley So vs Fabiano Caruana
R. Praggnanandhaa vs Vincent Keymer
Bogdan-Daniel Deac vs Jorden van Foreest
Photos: Lennart Ootes/ Grand Chess Tour, Abhyudaya Ram/ ChessBase India
#chess #chessbaseindia #praggnanandhaa #grandchesstour #superchessclassic
Praggnanandhaa plays an excellent game with the Black pieces to defeat the World Championship Challenger Javokhir Sindarov! Pragg took down Sindarov in Round 2 of the Grand Chess Tour Super Chess Classic 2026.
The last 2 games between Pragg and Sindarov at the Candidates were won by Sindarov - he sacrificed his Knight on both of them, getting very nice play and going on to win! In this game, Sindarov also sacrificed his Knight - but this time around it was Pragg who managed to take the material, defend and win the game comfortably.
Praggnanandhaa is the defending Champion of Super Chess Classic, and joins the leaders pack after the first 2 rounds - he is on 1.5/2 points!
Photo: Lennart Ootes/ Grand Chess Tour
#chess #chessbaseindia #Praggnanandhaa #sindarov #grandchesstour
12-year-old Aarav Sarbalia achieved his first IM norm at the Munich Norm tournament in Germany. The tournament was held from 10th to 14th of May 2026.
Aarav scored 5.5/9 and achieved his IM norm with 1 round to spare. His performance included wins over FM Johannes Florstedt (2389), FM Serdar Murat Yildiz (2373) and FM Kannan Vaidyanathan (2298). He also drew against 3 GMs in the process - Rustam Khusnutdinov (2434), GM Vojtech Plat (2483) and GM Igor Glek (2423).
With a rating performance of 2485 Aarav was able to gain 57 Elo points and once again cross 2300 Elo. It was in 2024 that Aarav had crossed 2300 - 2 years ago. Although it might seem that the youngster stagnated for this period, it may not be true. It's quite possible that Aarav has been working on his chess and getting stronger and now will move confidently towards his IM title.
In the pictures you will also see Raphael Nitsche, the co-founder of Lotus Chess visiting the venue and meeting Aarav. Aarav is sponsored and supported by Lotus Chess.
Aarav has a very unique footprint in the world of chess. He is perhaps one of the only youngsters out there who is not just playing chess at a high level but also creating interesting content on Instagram. Check out his work on Instagram under the handle @aaravsarbalia .
We wish Aarav, his family and his team the best in reaching the IM title very soon! :)
#chess #chessbaseindia #aaravsarbalia #talent
In just a few minutes from now, an epic clash is starting. In Round 2 of the Grand Chess Tour Super Chess Classic, R. Praggnanandhaa will take on the World Championship Challenger Javokhir Sindarov!
Sindarov defeated Praggnanandhaa with both colors in the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026. In this event, Sindarov started with a solid draw against Bogdan-Daniel Deac! Praggnanandhaa had a shaky first game where he had to defend a close to lost position to a draw against Alireza Firouzja.
Who do you think would win? Let us know in the comments!
Graphic: Anmol Bhargav
#chess #chessbaseindia #grandchesstour #Praggnanandhaa #sindarov
