Superbet Blitz 2025: Fedoseev regains sole lead, Praggnanandhaa climbs to the second place

by Shahid Ahmed - 30/04/2025

Vladimir Fedoseev (SLO) maintained his pole position by scoring an unbeaten 8/9 at Grand Chess Tour Superbet Blitz 2025. The only two draws were against R Praggnanandhaa and Alireza Firouzja (FRA). Despite starting with two losses, Praggnanandhaa bounced back strong by scoring 5.5 points in the next seven games. He moved up to the second spot with 15.5/27, 3.5 points behind Fedoseev. Aravindh Chithambaram struggled on the first day of Blitz event by scoring only 3.5 points including a hat-trick of losses. The last nine rounds of Blitz games will be played today starting from 12 p.m. local time, 3:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

A great day for Praggnanandhaa, not so good one for Aravindh

R Praggnanandhaa moved up to the second spot despite losing three out of his nine games. Aravindh Chithambaram had a relatively tough day as he lost three consecutive games from Round 6 to 8. His game against R Praggnanandhaa once again was another topsy-turvy affair. Aravindh finished the day with a draw against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave after missing a forced checkmate combination.

R Praggnanandhaa made a great recovery in Blitz to move to the second place | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

44th Olympiad Gold medalist, GM Natalia Zhukova (UKR) made the ceremonial first move on Alireza Firouzja (FRA) and Jan-Krzysztof Duda's (POL) board before Round 1 | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

Round 3: Firouzja - Praggnanandhaa: 0-1

After starting the day with two consecutive losses against - Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU, 2629) and Levon Aronian (USA, 2761), R Praggnanandhaa (2717) scored his first win of the day against, Alireza Firouzja (FRA, 2857).

Firouzja - Praggnanandhaa, Commentary by IM Sagar Shah | Video: ChessBase India

R Praggnanandhaa bounced back with a win over Alireza Firouzja (FRA) after starting the day with two losses in-a-row | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

Deac - Aravindh: 0-1

Aravindh Chithambaram (2622) scored his first win in the Blitz event against Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU, 2629) after a draw against David Gavrilescu (ROU, 2506) and a loss versus Vladimir Fedoseev (SLO, 2675).

Round 4: Aravindh - Duda: 1-0

Aravindh Chithambaram (2662) defeated Jan-Krzysztof Duda (POL, 2785) for the second consecutive day. This time, it was Duda who sacrificed an exchange but he did not enough out of it.

Aravindh Chithambaram defeated Jan-Krzysztof Duda (POL) for the second consecutive day with white pieces | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

Praggnanandhaa - Vachier-Lagrave: 1-0

An error in the endgame, cost Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 2748) a couple of pawns and the game against R Praggnanandhaa (2717).

Round 5: Fedoseev - Praggnanandhaa: 0.5-0.5

Vladimir Fedoseev (SLO, 2675) had a back and forth prolonged battle against R Praggnanandhaa (2717) which ended in a draw after 132 moves. It could have gone either player's way.

Position after 72.Rc4+??

72.Rc4+?? is actually a blunder. Find out what Praggnanandhaa missed which was his best chance in the game.

R Praggnanandhaa had a great opportunity to beat the sole leader Vladimir Fedoseev (SLO) | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

Round 6: Praggnanandhaa - Duda: 0-1

Position after 60...Rg6

Lucena with an extra pawn on g7 means ideally it should end in a draw. However, in reality it's not that easy in Blitz when you have very few seconds left on the clock. 61.Kc1 Rc6+ 62.Kb2 keeps things in control. However, 61.Kd3?? allowed the black king to find a shelter Kd1 62.Rh8 Rg3+ and Black won.

Round 7: Topalov - Praggnanandhaa: 0-1

R Praggnanandhaa (2717) got the better of former World Champion, Veselin Topalov (BUL, 2657).

Round 8: Aravindh - Praggnanandhaa: 0-1

R Praggnanandhaa won another back and forth battle against Aravindh Chithambaram where the former had more winning chances than his opponent.

Round 9: Vachier-Lagrave - Aravindh: 0.5-0.5

Aravindh Chithambaram missed a checkmate combination against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Praggnanandhaa - Gavrilescu: 1-0

R Praggnanandhaa finished the day with a win over David Gavrilescu.

Replay live stream

Replay Blitz Round 1-9 live commentary by IM Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal | Video: ChessBase India

Schedule and Format

Superbet Rapid and Blitz will have three rounds per day in the Rapid portion from 26th to 28th April. The Blitz event will take place on 29th and 30th April. It will be a double round-robin event for the Blitz which means nine rounds will be played on each day. Round 1 starts at 2 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. It will be a 10-player Round Robin event. Time control for Rapid will be 25 minutes + 10 seconds increment.

Superbet Rapid and Blitz 2025 schedule | Photo: Grand Chess Tour

Prize

The total prize fund for each of the Rapid and Blitz event is US$ 175000. The top three prizes are US$ 40000, $30000 and $25000.

Replay Blitz Round 1-9 games

Standings after Blitz Round 9

Vladimir Fedoseev has gained sole lead 19/27, R Praggnanandhaa is at second place 15.5/27 | Photo: Grand Chess Tour

Links

Official site

Buy tickets

Tournament Regulations

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