8th Sharjah Masters R7: Anish Giri gains sole lead

by Shahid Ahmed - 24/05/2025

GM Anish Giri (NED) drew with GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB) comfortably to emerge sole leader at 8th Sharjah Masters 2025. Giri is now at 5.5/7. Five players - GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB), GM Shant Sargsyan (ARM), GM Aleksandar Indjic (SRB), GM Velimir Ivic (SRB) and GM Salem Saleh (UAE) are trailing him by a half point at 5/7 each.They are followed by 14 players at 4.5/7 each including three Indians - GM Visakh N R, GM Aditya Mittal and GM Pranav Anand. IM Mayank Chakraborty 6/7 and Shubham Shukla 7/7 have maintain their sole lead in Group B and C respectively as Shubham scored his seventh win in-a-row. Round 8 starts today at 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photos: Himank Ghosh

Group B and C: Mayank Chakraborty and Shubham Shukla stay at the top

Anish Giri (NED) is the sole leader 5.5/7

Anish Giri (NED) - Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB): 0.5-0.5

GM Salem Saleh (UAE) defeated GM Aleksandar Indjic (SRB) to move to 5/7

GM Visakh N R defended well in a pawn down rook endgame against GM David Paravyan

Leon - Pranav Anand

Position after 29...h3

GM Pranav Anand (2630) launched a nice attack on the kingside 29...h3 in a situation where GM Leon Luke Mendonca's (2630) pieces are already crippled. 30.Qf2 Ng7 31.Kh1 Qh5 32.gxh3 Bxh3 33.Bxh3 Qxh3 34.Qg3 Qxg3 35.hxg3 the queen trade momentarily seems to have alleviated the intensity of the attack. 35...Nf5 the reason behind Ng7 a few moves ago 36.Kg2 Nxe3+ and it became just a matter of time before Black won the game.

GM Pranav Anand positionally outplayed GM Leon Luke Mendonca

GM Aditya Mittal drew with the newly crowned Asian Individual 2025 champion, GM Bardiya Daneshvar (IRI)

Raja Rithvik - Jingyao

Position after 43...Kxd4?

GM Raja Rithvik R (2545) had one opportunity in the rook endgame to turn things in his favor after GM Jingyao Tin (SGP, 2601) captured the d4-pawn 43...Kxd4? White needed to push his passed pawn 44.c6 to keep winning chances Rc2 45.Rxf7 Rxc6 46.f4 was a better continuation than directly capturing on f7 44.Rxf7? Kxc5 45.g4 the difference is White also loses a4-pawn and crucial time.

GM Raja Rithvik R could have pushed for a win against the Singapore no.1 - GM Jingyao Tin | Photo: Sharjah Chess Club

Group B: Zhang Di (CHN) - IM Mayank Chakraborty: 0.5-0.5

Group C: Shubham Shukla scored his seventh win in-a-row when he won against Kilichbek Naziraliev (UZB) and extended his lead by a full point | Photo: Sharjah Chess Club

For more Round 7 photos, please click here.

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Replay Round 7 Masters A games

Replay Round 7 Masters B games

Round 7 Masters A results

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	No.	PGN
1	2	GM	Giri, Anish	2738	5	½ - ½	4½	GM	Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	2771	1	PGN
2	24	GM	Kozak, Adam	2578	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Tabatabaei, M. Amin	2670	5	PGN
3	34	GM	Zemlyanskii, Ivan	2563	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Sargsyan, Shant	2666	6	PGN
4	52	GM	Dai, Changren	2531	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Ivic, Velimir	2630	13	PGN
5	11	GM	Salem, A.R. Saleh *)	2631	4	1 - 0	5	GM	Indjic, Aleksandar	2637	8	PGN
6	29	GM	Amar, Elham	2569	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Theodorou, Nikolas	2611	17	PGN
7	63	GM	Visakh, N R	2507	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Paravyan, David	2596	21	PGN
8	18	GM	Muradli, Mahammad	2603	3½	1 - 0	4	GM	Woodward, Andy	2547	45	PGN
9	36	GM	Vetokhin, Savva	2558	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Maghsoodloo, Parham	2706	3	PGN
10	4	GM	Sevian, Samuel	2694	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Karthik, Venkataraman	2565	31	PGN
11	14	GM	Mendonca, Leon Luke	2630	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Pranav, Anand	2555	39	PGN
12	44	GM	Aditya, Mittal *)	2547	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Daneshvar, Bardiya	2621	16	PGN
13	20	GM	Azarov, Sergei	2596	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Jumabayev, Rinat	2551	43	PGN
14	22	GM	Pichot, Alan	2587	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Xiao, Tong(Qd)	2493	68	PGN
15	26	GM	Iniyan, Pa	2573	3½	0 - 1	3½	IM	Mamedov, Edgar	2492	69	PGN

Details

Standings after Round 7

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1
1	2	GM	Giri, Anish	NED	2738	5,5	29,5
2	1	GM	Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	UZB	2771	5	27,5
3	6	GM	Sargsyan, Shant	ARM	2666	5	27
4	8	GM	Indjic, Aleksandar	SRB	2637	5	27
5	13	GM	Ivic, Velimir	SRB	2630	5	26
6	11	GM	Salem, A.R. Saleh	UAE	2631	5	24,5
7	63	GM	Visakh, N R	IND	2507	4,5	31
8	36	GM	Vetokhin, Savva	FID	2558	4,5	29,5
9	44	GM	Aditya, Mittal	IND	2547	4,5	29
10	24	GM	Kozak, Adam	HUN	2578	4,5	28,5
11	29	GM	Amar, Elham	NOR	2569	4,5	28
12	39	GM	Pranav, Anand	IND	2555	4,5	27,5
13	69	IM	Mamedov, Edgar	KAZ	2492	4,5	27,5
14	4	GM	Sevian, Samuel	USA	2694	4,5	26,5
15	17	GM	Theodorou, Nikolas	GRE	2611	4,5	26

Details

Round 8 pairings

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	No.
1	13	GM	Ivic, Velimir	2630	5		5½	GM	Giri, Anish	2738	2
2	8	GM	Indjic, Aleksandar	2637	5		5	GM	Sargsyan, Shant	2666	6
3	24	GM	Kozak, Adam	2578	4½		4½	GM	Sevian, Samuel	2694	4
4	5	GM	Tabatabaei, M. Amin	2670	4½		4½	GM	Visakh, N R	2507	63
5	1	GM	Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	2771	5		5	GM	Salem, A.R. Saleh *)	2631	11
6	39	GM	Pranav, Anand	2555	4½		4½	GM	Daneshvar, Bardiya	2621	16
7	17	GM	Theodorou, Nikolas	2611	4½		4½	GM	Vetokhin, Savva	2558	36
8	69	IM	Mamedov, Edgar	2492	4½		4½	GM	Muradli, Mahammad	2603	18
9	21	GM	Paravyan, David	2596	4½		4½	GM	Amar, Elham	2569	29
10	15	GM	Xu, Xiangyu	2623	4		4	GM	Dai, Changren	2531	52
11	45	GM	Woodward, Andy	2547	4		4	GM	Azarov, Sergei	2596	20
12	44	GM	Aditya, Mittal *)	2547	4½		4½	GM	Pichot, Alan	2587	22
13	27	GM	Bai, Jinshi	2572	4		4	IM	Assaubayeva, Bibisara	2494	66
14	43	GM	Jumabayev, Rinat	2551	4		4	GM	Samunenkov, Ihor	2572	28
15	33	GM	Akobian, Varuzhan	2564	4		4	GM	Siddharth, Jagadeesh	2472	76

Details

Round 7 Masters B results

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	No.	PGN
1	14		Zhang, Di	2410	5	½ - ½	5½	IM	Mayank, Chakraborty	2436	10	PGN
2	4	IM	Wang, Shixu B	2462	4½	½ - ½	5		Meng, Yihan	2443	7	PGN
3	23	FM	Zia, Tahsin Tajwar	2374	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Levin, Evgeny A.	2453	5	PGN
4	6	IM	Mahdavi, Reza	2445	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	Schekachikhin, Maksim	2364	25	PGN
5	28	FM	Bharadia, Yash	2355	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Burmakin, Vladimir	2435	11	PGN
6	38	FM	Chubakov, Sultan	2271	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Tarigan, Gilbert Elroy	2415	13	PGN
7	68		Umarov, Bekhruz	2119	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Poormosavi, Seyed Kian	2379	21	PGN
8	22	IM	Raahul, V S	2378	4½	½ - ½	4½	FM	Sharipov, Davron	2269	39	PGN
9	36	GM	Ahmad, Al Khatib *)	2283	2	1 - 0	2½		Rashed Abubaker, Alhemeiri	1840	138	PGN
10	88		Plotnikov, Boris	2056	4½	+ - -	4	IM	Garifullina, Leya	2467	3
11	1	IM	Ayush, Sharma	2478	4	0 - 1	4	CM	Davudov, Tunar	2279	37	PGN
12	2	GM	Prraneeth, Vuppala	2474	4	1 - 0	4		Vasilkov, Nikolay	2201	47	PGN
13	8	IM	Harshavardhan, G B	2441	4	1 - 0	4	AIM	Vihaan, Dumir	2191	51
14	42	WIM	Aydin, Gulenay	2240	4	0 - 1	4		Jiang, Haochen	2439	9
15	12	GM	Shyaam, Nikhil P	2430	4	½ - ½	4	WIM	Caglar, Sila	2200	48

Details

Standings after Round 7

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1
1	10	IM	Mayank, Chakraborty	IND	2436	6	31
2	6	IM	Mahdavi, Reza	IRI	2445	5,5	30,5
3	11	GM	Burmakin, Vladimir	RUS	2435	5,5	30,5
4	14		Zhang, Di	CHN	2410	5,5	30
5	7		Meng, Yihan	CHN	2443	5,5	29
6	21	IM	Poormosavi, Seyed Kian	IRI	2379	5,5	29
7	13	IM	Tarigan, Gilbert Elroy	INA	2415	5,5	28,5
8	23	FM	Zia, Tahsin Tajwar	BAN	2374	5,5	27,5
9	88		Plotnikov, Boris	RUS	2056	5,5	26
10	4	IM	Wang, Shixu B	CHN	2462	5	31
11	2	GM	Prraneeth, Vuppala	IND	2474	5	30,5
12	22	IM	Raahul, V S	IND	2378	5	29,5
13	39	FM	Sharipov, Davron	UZB	2269	5	29,5
14	8	IM	Harshavardhan, G B	IND	2441	5	28
15	9		Jiang, Haochen	CHN	2439	5	27

Details

Round 8 pairings

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	No.
1	7		Meng, Yihan	2443	5½		6	IM	Mayank, Chakraborty	2436	10
2	21	IM	Poormosavi, Seyed Kian	2379	5½		5½	IM	Mahdavi, Reza	2445	6
3	11	GM	Burmakin, Vladimir	2435	5½		5½		Plotnikov, Boris	2056	88
4	13	IM	Tarigan, Gilbert Elroy	2415	5½		5½		Zhang, Di	2410	14
5	23	FM	Zia, Tahsin Tajwar	2374	5½		5	GM	Prraneeth, Vuppala	2474	2
6	35	WIM	Mkrtchyan, Mariam	2292	5		5	IM	Wang, Shixu B	2462	4
7	39	FM	Sharipov, Davron	2269	5		5	IM	Harshavardhan, G B	2441	8
8	9		Jiang, Haochen	2439	5		5	IM	Raahul, V S	2378	22
9	97		Jagreet, Misra	1999	3		3	GM	Ahmad, Al Khatib *)	2283	36
10	37	CM	Davudov, Tunar	2279	5		5	WGM	Beydullayeva, Govhar	2394	18
11	5	GM	Levin, Evgeny A.	2453	4½		4½	IM	Tissir, Mohamed	2320	32
12	31	IM	Popovic, Milos T	2334	4½		4½	GM	Shyaam, Nikhil P	2430	12
13	38	FM	Chubakov, Sultan	2271	4½		4½	IM	Arfan, Aditya Bagus	2402	16
14	68		Umarov, Bekhruz	2119	4½		4½	IM	Liyanage, Ranindu Dilshan	2387	20
15	48	WIM	Caglar, Sila	2200	4½		4½	GM	Zubarev, Alexander	2372	24

Details

Round 7 Masters C results

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	No.
1	35		Naziraliev, Kilichbek	1731	5½	0 - 1	6	AGM	Shubham, Shukla	1823	11
2	27		Abdalla, Mansoor Abdalla	1756	5	0 - 1	5		Al Balushi, Emad	1792	16
3	4	AIM	Muhammad, Shayan Noushad Ibrahim	1860	4½	1 - 0	4½		Vaibhav, Krishnan K P	1785	19
4	34		Daiwik, Jain	1733	4½	0 - 1	4½		Kirthika, B	1860	5
5	9		Al Namas, Kanan	1841	4½	1 - 0	4½		Alotaibi, Dayfullah M	1702	46

Details

Standings after Round 7

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1
1	11	AGM	Shubham, Shukla	IND	1823	7	32
2	16		Al Balushi, Emad	OMA	1792	6	31,5
3	35		Naziraliev, Kilichbek	UZB	1731	5,5	32,5
4	4	AIM	Muhammad, Shayan Noushad Ibrahim	IND	1860	5,5	29
5	5		Kirthika, B	IND	1860	5,5	29

Details

Round 8 pairings

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	No.
1	11	AGM	Shubham, Shukla	1823	7		5½	AIM	Muhammad, Shayan Noushad Ibrahim	1860	4
2	16		Al Balushi, Emad	1792	6		5½		Nookala, Nikhil Sriram	1737	30
3	5		Kirthika, B	1860	5½		5½		Naziraliev, Kilichbek	1731	35
4	9		Al Namas, Kanan	1841	5½		5		Mammadzada, Mammad	1856	6
5	1	AIM	Buirzayqah, Mohammed	1889	5		5		Alajaji, Mshari Fahad	1788	18

Details

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