Total Chess Pilot 2026: Carlsen wins the Blitz Swiss unbeaten, Vaishali beats Niemann and So!
Magnus Carlsen won the Blitz Swiss that opened the Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot in Budapest on the 10th of November 2026. He scored 7.0/9 and did not lose a game. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was second on 6.5/9 and Levon Aronian third on 6.0/9. For India the story of the evening was R. Vaishali. She had the lowest blitz rating in the field of 24 players, and she beat Hans Niemann and Wesley So, both with the black pieces!
The blitz had no prize money and no title. But its ranking is going to follow the players for the next ten days: it breaks ties in the groups, it decides the semifinal pairings in the knockouts, and it gives the higher-ranked player the choice of colour in the first blitz game of every knockout match. So nobody treated it as a warm-up.
The FIDE President makes the first move
Before the first round there was the opening ceremony at the Anantara New York Palace Hotel. Kjell Madland, the founder of Norway Chess and the driving force behind Total Chess, welcomed the players. FIDE President Timur Turlov thanked the organisers for bringing the event to life, and opera singer Ildikó Megyimórecz performed for the guests. Madland and Turlov then made the ceremonial first moves on the top board, Jan-Krzysztof Duda against Magnus Carlsen, and the tournament was under way.
Magnus: unbeaten, and first once again
Magnus began with 2.0/2, beating Duda with Black and Richard Rapport with White. He then drew with Vachier-Lagrave, beat Arjun Erigaisi, drew with Ian Nepomniachtchi, beat Anish Giri, and drew with Niemann and Aronian. Going into the last round he was level with MVL on 6.0/8. Magnus had Black against Haik Martirosyan and won. MVL was held to a draw by Niemann. That was the difference.
The game that was quite thrilling was Magnus' win over Arjun in round 4. Arjun, with Black, went all in on the kingside.
Magnus picked up the knight and after Qxh2+ moved his king to f2. Kf2, Ke2, Kd2! The king left the kingside, and the files it left behind were now open for the white rooks.
Vaishali beats Niemann and So!
Vaishali came into the blitz with a rating of 2345, the lowest among the 24 players. In round one she was paired against Hans Niemann (2711), with Black.
Hans was pressing for most of the game and Vaishali was living on the increment. At one point her clock showed one second! But she kept making moves, the position became equal, and then came this moment.
Vaishali played 46...Be7! The bishop cuts the white rook off from the pawn on e6. The black king picked up e6, then d7, and the game was over.
Two rounds later she had Black once again, this time against Wesley So (2745), the world no.6 in classical chess. Both players were down to a few seconds when Wesley put his rook on g1.
48...Rf2! The white queen is attacked, and it is the only piece guarding the rook on e4. Wesley took on f2, Vaishali took on e4, and with the queens still on the board the white king had nowhere to hide. To find this with six seconds on the clock!
Vaishali also drew with Duda, Rapport and Giri, and with Bibisara Assaubayeva in the last round. She lost to Vladislav Artemiev, Arjun and Martirosyan. Her final score was 4.0/9, and she finished 17th, ahead of Abhimanyu Mishra, Le Quang Liem, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Andrew Hong, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Jorden van Foreest and Assaubayeva. Against an average opposition of nearly 2670 in blitz, that is a performance to be proud of.
Arjun: five wins, three losses and just one draw
Arjun Erigaisi finished on 5.5/9 and took the sixth place. His evening had almost no draws in it. He beat Jorden van Foreest, R. Praggnanandhaa, Vaishali, Vachier-Lagrave and Fabiano Caruana. He lost to Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi and Aronian. The only draw, against Artemiev in round three, lasted 130 moves and was the longest game of the event!
Arjun was the only player to beat MVL. After his win over Caruana with Black in round eight he was just half a point behind the leaders with one round to go. A win against Aronian would have put him among the top three. Aronian won instead and took the third place himself.
Not Pragg's day
Praggnanandhaa, who won Norway Chess earlier this year, did not have a great evening. He scored 4.5/9 and finished 14th. He won against Assaubayeva, Le Quang Liem and Andrew Hong, drew with Rapport, Giri and So, and lost to Arjun, Niemann and Vincent Keymer. In the game against Arjun he was down to a few seconds by move 20, and that is where it slipped.
It is only the blitz, and Pragg's main event begins now. But as you will see below, his 14th place could matter.
Also from the blitz
Richard Rapport, Hungary's no.1 and the local favourite, beat Caruana in the very first round and finished on 5.5/9.
Levon Aronian won four of his last six games to finish third.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov has the second-highest blitz rating in the field (2819), behind only Carlsen. He won just one game and finished 22nd on 2.5/9.
Final ranking of the Blitz Swiss
Rank | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
1 | Magnus Carlsen | 7.0 |
2 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 6.5 |
3 | Levon Aronian | 6.0 |
4 | Alireza Firouzja | 5.5 |
5 | Hans Niemann | 5.5 |
6 | Arjun Erigaisi | 5.5 |
7 | Richard Rapport | 5.5 |
8 | Fabiano Caruana | 5.5 |
9 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 5.0 |
10 | Anish Giri | 5.0 |
11 | Vincent Keymer | 4.5 |
12 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 4.5 |
13 | Haik Martirosyan | 4.5 |
14 | R. Praggnanandhaa | 4.5 |
15 | Wesley So | 4.5 |
16 | Vladislav Artemiev | 4.0 |
17 | R. Vaishali | 4.0 |
18 | Abhimanyu Mishra | 4.0 |
19 | Le Quang Liem | 4.0 |
20 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 3.5 |
21 | Andrew Hong | 3.5 |
22 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 2.5 |
23 | Jorden van Foreest | 2.5 |
24 | Bibisara Assaubayeva | 0.5 |
The four groups
The groups were drawn by lot at the technical meeting earlier in the day. The top four players by classical rating, Carlsen, Caruana, Abdusattorov and So, were kept in different groups, and everyone else could land anywhere. This is what came out. The number in brackets is the classical rating, and the last column is the rank from the blitz.
Group A | Blitz rank | Group B | Blitz rank |
|---|---|---|---|
Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2772) | 22 | Fabiano Caruana (2783) | 8 |
Alireza Firouzja (2757) | 4 | R. Praggnanandhaa (2763) | 14 |
Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2741) | 12 | Vincent Keymer (2761) | 11 |
Levon Aronian (2719) | 3 | Le Quang Liem (2732) | 19 |
Jorden van Foreest (2715) | 23 | Richard Rapport (2718) | 7 |
Andrew Hong (2609) | 21 | Vladislav Artemiev (2653) | 16 |
Group C | Blitz rank | Group D | Blitz rank |
|---|---|---|---|
Magnus Carlsen (2823) | 1 | Wesley So (2771) | 15 |
Anish Giri (2747) | 10 | Arjun Erigaisi (2746) | 6 |
Ian Nepomniachtchi (2719) | 9 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2707) | 2 |
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2709) | 20 | Hans Niemann (2697) | 5 |
Haik Martirosyan (2669) | 13 | Bibisara Assaubayeva (2532) | 24 |
Abhimanyu Mishra (2644) | 18 | R. Vaishali (2452) | 17 |
From the 11th to 15th of November each group plays a double round robin at Fast Classic, which is 45 minutes plus 30 seconds a move. There are two games a day, against the same opponent, once with White and once with Black. A win gives 3 points, a draw 1 and a loss 0. Only the winner of each group goes to Knockout 1 and plays for the title. If two players finish level, the one who finished higher in the blitz is ahead. No other tiebreak!
So who are the favourites?
Group A is the most open of the four. Abdusattorov is the top seed, but after his 22nd place he will lose every tie. Firouzja and Aronian finished fourth and third in the blitz, and Duda is always dangerous. If I had to pick one, it would be Firouzja.
Group B is the toughest. Caruana, Pragg and Keymer are three of the world's top ten, and Rapport is playing at home. Caruana is the favourite on rating, but Pragg is only 20 points behind him. The catch for Pragg is the tiebreak: Rapport, Caruana and Keymer all finished above him in the blitz. To win this group he will most probably have to finish clear first.
Group C has Magnus, and Magnus also has the best tiebreak in the event. Giri and Nepomniachtchi are the ones who have to stop him. It is very difficult to look beyond the world no.1 here.
Group D is the one Indian fans will watch the most. Arjun and Vaishali are both in it, along with So, MVL, Niemann and Assaubayeva. Wesley is the top seed, with Arjun 25 points behind him. Arjun finished well above Wesley in the blitz, but MVL and Niemann finished above Arjun. Vaishali will meet both the players she beat on day one, Niemann and So, twice each in Fast Classic. They will be waiting for her!
The good news for India: Magnus, Pragg and Arjun are in three different groups. It is entirely possible that both Pragg and Arjun win their groups, and that we see both of them in the title bracket along with Magnus next week.
The first round of the group stage begins today, the 11th of November, at 7.30 p.m. IST. You can follow the games live on chessbase.in/live.
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