The Week in Chess

• Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2025 - Games and Results

  The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League takes place Sat 13th Dec to Wed 24th Dec 2025 in Mumbai. This is a very strong rapid team event and is on its third edition with previous events in Dubai and London. There are two stages, a round robin taking place until the 22nd of December followed by a two day KO to decide the final placings.

  Teams:

  Triveni Continental Kings: Firouzja, Wei, Vidit, Zhu, Kosteniuk, Maurizzi.

  Upgrad Mumba Masters: Vachier-Lagrave, So, Mamedyarov, Koneru, Dronavalli, Daneshvar.

  Alpine SG Pipers: Caruana, Giri, Praggnanandhaa, Hou, Batsiashvili, Mendonca.

  Ganges Grandmasters: Anand, Keymer, Sindarov, Shuvalova, Tsolakidou, Sadhwani.

  PBG Alaskan Knights: Gukesh, Erigaisi, Dominguez Perez, Lagno, Khademalsharieh, Dardha.

  Fyers American Gambits: Nakamura, Artemiev, Rapport, Assaubayeva, Injac, Murzin.

• Magistral Szmetan-Giardelli 2025 - Games and Results

  The Magistral Szmetan-Giardelli was Round Robin held in Buenos Aire 8th to 16th December 2025. Players: Aryan Tari, Ivan Cheparinov, Julio, Granda Zuniga, Alexei Shirov, Diego Flores, Sandro Mareco, Faustino Oro, Ilan Schnaider, Sergio Slipak and Tomas, Darcyl. Aryan Tari took a quick draw in the final round and won on tie-break from Ivan Cheparinov after both scored 6/9, Alexei Shirov was also very much in the running for first place going into the final round but lost to Granda Zuniga in the final round and ended up in third place on tie-break from Faustino Oro on 5.5/9.

• 11th Vugar Gashimov Memorial 2025 - Games and Results

  The 11th Vugar Gashimov Memorial took place in Stepanakert Tue 9th Dec to Thu 11th Dec 2025. There were two days of rapid and one day of blitz. Players: Nepomniachtchi, Fedoseev, Mamedov, Tabatabaei, Yakubboev and Suleymanli.

  Ian Nepomniachtchi won the rapid by half a point from Vladimir Fedoseev, the result was reversed for the blitz. The first tie-break was individual results between the players and Nepomniachtchi won one and drew one against Fedoseev in each part so won the tournament.

• Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals 2025 - Games and Results

  The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals took place Mon 8th Dec to Thu 11th Dec 2025. The venue was the Grootbos Private Nature Reserve two hours drive from Cape Town. The event was a fast rapid time control of 10 minutes + 5 seconds a move. Players: Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Vincent Keymer, Arjun Erigaisi, Levon Aronian, Hans Niemann, Parham Maghsoodloo and Javokhir Sindarov.

  Perhaps fittingly the two biggest advocates of this Chess960 tour met in the final. Levon Aronian beat Magnus Carlsen 1.5-0.5. Aronian went the entire event undefeated. Carlsen lost two in the preliminaries and three in the knockout section, which I'm sure he'll view as entirely too many. Carlsen had previously dominated the tour and so in spite of this result won the tour title.

  I can't display Chess960 games but they're all available for download.

• 15th XTX Markets London Chess Classic 2025 - Games and Results

  The 15th XTX Markets London Chess Classic took place Wed 26th Nov to Sun 7th Dec 2025. Players: Alireza Firouzja, Luke Mcshane, Michael Adams, Nikolas Theodorou, Sam Shankland, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Pavel Eljanov, Nikita Vitiugov, Abhimanyu Mishra and Gawain Maroroa Jones.

  Nodirbek Abdusattorov dominated the event scoring 7.5/9 and finished two points clear of Alireza Firouzja. The open saw Praggnanandhaa, Vladimir Ivic and Ameet Ghasi tie on 7/9. The Super Rapid was won by Nikolas Theodorou on 9/10 with Alireza Firouza half a point behind on 8.5 points.

• Nikolas Theodorou wins the London Super Rapid - Rapid

  The 15th XTX Markets London Chess Classic concluded with the Super Rapidplay over the final weekend. All of the players who featured in the Elite tournament also played the rapid and most of them were in the final shakeup.

  Nikolas Theodorou emerged as a clear winner with a fantastic 9/10 score, run to the title was: win against Luke McShane, win against Leinier Dominguez, draw against Alireza Firouzja and then win against Nodirbek Abdusattorov in Round 10.

  Theodorou was born in Athens in 2000 and is 25 years old. He is Greece's top player and is at a career high right now having passed 2650 for the first time. He's been a GM since 2021.

• Abdusattorov's draw with Firouzja confirms victory in the London Chess Classic - 7-8

  Nodirbek Abdusattorov's six game winning streak might have ended with a draw against Alireza Firouzja in Round 8 but it confirmed a clear win for him in the London Chess Classic with a round to spare, and this result was obtained from a position of strength.

  Abdusattorov had beaten Luke McShane in Round 7 with a long grind giving him a two point lead over Firouzja. Their Round 8 game was a Queen's Gambit Accepted where the engine thought Abdusattorov's 15...Rb6 was inferior to 15...Nd8= and that 16.Qe2 instead of 16.Qa4 might have given an edge to Firouzja. As it was Abdusattorov was the one who stood slightly better and when he repeated for a draw Firouzja had no choice whilst Abdusattorov could have played 33...Qg6 to try for a win had he needed.