"VAN" (Sports Desk - 13.09.2025) :: Round eight saw just one victory among the top boards – with Keymer defeating the 2023 Grand Swiss winner Vidit. A different story unfolded in the women’s tournament where Vaishali Rameshbabu was knocked out of the lead after losing to Bibisara Assaubayeva. On board two, Kateryna Lagno crushed Mariya Muzychuk, taking a half-point lead in the tournament.
Among the top ten boards in the Open section, eight finished in a draw. While many were mostly calm, some saw a sharp fight.
On board one, the two tournament leaders from round seven – Matthias Bluebaum and Nihal Sarin – had a peaceful draw in the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, in just 21 moves and under an hour and 20 minutes of play.
Of the seven players trailing the leaders on five points – all but one drew. Firouzja split a point with Niemann in the Ruy Lopez on board two, while Abdusattorov drew as Black against Mishra.
Despite finishing in a draw, the game between Parham Maghsoodloo and Anish Giri saw a lot of intense action on the board. This was the position reached by move 21, in the English Opening:
Black had just placed his bishop on d5, effectively taking the white rook on d6 captive. After 22.Bh3 Rc7 24.cxd5 Ke7 25.dxe6 Kxe6 Black emerged an exchange up, but it’s not so easy to convert, as White’s bishop had a lot of open space and his rook is also very active.
After some precise maneuvers, the two eventually reached the following position:
49.Rg8! The only move! If 49…Rxg8 then 50.Bd5+ followed by the queen promotion after hxg8.
49…Rf8 50.Bg6+ Ke7 51.Kd5 Rf6 And now everything simplifies into a clean draw: 52.h8=Q Rxh8 53.Rxh8 Rxg6 54.Rh7+ Kd8 55.Rxb7.
The only winner among the top boards was Vincent Keymer, who defeated Vidit in the Berlin Defence of Ruy Lopez. Vidit – who is defending his 2023 Grand Swiss crown – blundered his position in one move, in a drawn pawn endgame.
Black should have played 43…Kd5! With the idea of creating a sufficient counterplay on the queenside in case of 44.Kf3 Kd4 45.Kg4 Kc3.
Instead, Vidit faltered with 43…c6? after which Black’s position is beyond repair.
After 44.c4! Kf5 45.Kf3 Kf6 46.Ke4 Ke6 47.d4! White went on to clear the queenside for his a-runner and won.
This victory pushed Keymer into the group of eight players trailing Sarin and Bluebaum by half a point. Another joiner is Jorden van Foreest, who defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
Turkish youngster Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus continued with his impressive performance, this time beating the seasoned Levon Aronian in the French.
White is already better here thanks to his strong knight on g6. Despite being in time trouble, Erdogmus played a great move here – 33.Re4! attacking the d4-pawn. Black cannot take the rook with the knight because of checkmate 34.Rc8+ Rf8 35.Rxf8+ Kh7 36.Rh8#.
Aronian played 33…e5 and after 34.Rxe5 White is winning. The d4-pawn fell pretty soon afterwards and White was confident in securing his victory. Erdogmus is now on 5/8, while Aronian is on four points.
World Champion Gukesh D managed to end his losing streak by securing a draw as White. Playing on the penultimate board against Divya Deshmukh (who this summer won the Women’s World Cup), Gukesh was not his best self, as he missed chances and struggled.
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