"VAN" (Sports Desk - 07.09.2025) :: After five hours and 45 minutes of tension, Parham Maghsoodloo outlasted Alireza Firouzja to take the sole lead in the tournament. In the women’s event, Vaishali Rameshbabu – despite being down to her final minute – played fearlessly and defeated Olga Badelka to claim the top spot.
It was a long day in Samarkand, with many of the top games stretching late into the evening. If there was a theme to Day 3, it was concentration – or lack of it – as several decisive matches were decided by blunders in tense, balanced endgames.
The main duel of round three in the Open took place on board one, where France’s Alireza Firouzja faced his former compatriot Parham Maghsoodloo in the battle for the lead. Playing the Najdorf, the two transitioned to a complicated endgame, where Black had a slight advantage thanks to a pawn chain in the centre and two bishops. However, at some point Maghsoodloo miscalculated and lost a pawn, allowing Firouzja to equalise.
White has almost complete domination on the queenside, but his g4-pawn is lost. If he’s not careful, Black can be just in time to win the race to promotion. The only option for White here is to put his rook on the eighth rank and go with checks: 43.Rb8 Rxg4 44.Rf8+ Ke6 45.Re8+ Kd7 46.Ne5+ Kxe8 47.Nxg4.
Instead, after more than five hours of play, Firouzja made a fatal error with 43.Rb6??
This immediately loses: 43…Bxb6 44.axb6 Rh7! 45.c4 Rd7! Cutting off the white king from the kingside.
46.Nb4 White is forced to pull back his knight and try to stop Black’s advance on the kingside.
46…f3 47.Nd3 Ke7 48.c5 Rd8! 49.c6 Kd6 Right on time to squash any hopes for Firouzja.
50.c7 Re8 51.Kc3 Kc6 White resigns, 0-1.
A crushing blow to Firouzja in the first high-stakes clash of the tournament.
A crushing blow to Firouzja in the first high-stakes clash of the tournament.
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