14-Year-Old Erdogmus Wins Masterpiece; Lagno Catches Vaishali
Turkish prodigy GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus won what GM David Howell called an "Evergreen" game in round four of the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss to join a 13-way tie for second place behind GM Parham Maghsoodloo. It was mainly draws at the top, but 18-year-old French Champion GM Marc-Andria Maurizzi won a dramatic game against GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and the two women in the Open, GMs Divya Deshmukh and Aleksandra Goryachkina, both picked up upset wins.
GM Kateryna Lagno defeated IM Song Yuxin for a third win in a row which saw her catch GM Vaishali Rameshbabu in the 2025 FIDE Women's Grand Swiss lead on 3.5/4 after the Indian defending champion was held to a draw by IM Dinara Wagner.
Round five is on Monday, September 8, starting at 6 a.m. ET / 12:00 CEST / 3:30 p.m. IST.
Standings
Maghsoodloo still has the sole lead after round four, but the chasing pack half a point behind has grown to 13 players.
FIDE Grand Swiss Standings After Round 4
There are no more 100 percent scores in Samarkand after Vaishali was held to a draw by Wagner, with Lagno catching the leader with a win over Song.
FIDE Women's Grand Swiss Standings After Round 4
Open: Tight At The Top As Erdogmus Wins Stunner
The shield was stronger than the sword in round four of the Open section, with just two wins on the top-10 boards.
Round 4 Results: Open
Check out the full games and results.
Maghsoodloo lost his 100-percent record in round four after a tense 56-move draw against GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov but kept the sole lead as none of the six players on 2.5/3 were able to win. On boards two and three there were eerie similarities.
What were the odds two of the top boards would both end up in this exact structure with this exact random material balance. pic.twitter.com/thPKJ6fMUs
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) September 7, 2025
World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju vs. GM Arjun Erigaisi never looked like altering their remarkably lopsided number of wins (6-1 for Arjun).
GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, meanwhile, came very close to catching Maghsoodloo by beating 16-year-old GM Abhimanyu Mishra. Praggnanandhaa won a pawn and when he confidently played 38.f5!, it looked like he had everything figured out. His next move may have been a mistake, however, since Mishra turned out to have a fortress—and posted a 60th classical game in a row unbeaten!
A player who could have become a surprise co-leader is 23-year-old Polish GM Szymon Gumularz, who got the better of GM Alireza Firouzja in the opening. Instead he was, understandably, content with a quick draw by repetition. Gumularz explained he's currently studying linguistics at a university rather than focusing fully on chess:
I would call myself semi-professional because it’s sort of in between playing and coaching in my case. I also study at the university, but I mostly connect my career with chess, one way or another. Maybe if it goes very well, I’ll be professional, but for now it stays at this semi-pro level.
Seven players on 2/3 won to join a 13-player logjam in second place, including GMs Richard Rapport, Matthias Bluebaum, Nodirbek Yakubboev, and Nikita Vitiugov.
The one who did it in the most spectacular way possible, however, was 14-year-old Erdogmus, currently the chess world's number-one prodigy since no one has ever been rated higher at the same age.
Against 18-year-old Indian GM Aditya Mittal, who has himself been in great form in recent months, Erdogmus showed the full range of his talent by playing a phenomenal game. It was also beautiful, since with three queens on the board, he sacrificed one of them (with 30 seconds on his clock) to deliver checkmate with a pawn.
Howell on 14-year-old Erdogmus' checkmating attack: "That's going to go down in history as his Evergreen!" https://t.co/HpFDAXPygr pic.twitter.com/WbhceZgjdJ
— chess24 (@chess24com) September 7, 2025
That's our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao has analyzed below.
Almost the opposite of that explosive win was GM Vincent Keymer's 72-move grind against GM Frederik Svane, the unfathomable endgame swings of which caused GM Judit Polgar to exclaim, "Chess is hard," before she added the afterthought, "If you want to play it right—otherwise, it's not hard!"
The last twist came when Svane played 57...Kc5? and Keymer didn't slip again.
Another youngster to win in spectacular fashion was Maurizzi, who recently won the French Chess Championship at the age of 18. Surprisingly, however, Maurizzi had never faced the mainstay of French chess for over a decade, MVL—until now. Mayhem ensued, with the young star admitting things could have gone either way:
It was crazy. It was like a coin flip, I think, and it was good for me, but honestly I don’t know the evaluation of the position. I just played some move and it was good!
Maurizzi was the only male player to score a win against a higher-rated opponent, but not the only player to pull off such an upset in the Open section.
FIDE Grand Swiss Round 4 Upset Wins
| Player (Seed) | FED | Rtg | Result | Player (Seed) | FED | Rtg |
| GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (11) | 2738 | 0 - 1 | GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi (87) | 2610 | ||
| GM Aleksandra Goryachkina (110) | 2528 | 1 - 0 | GM Dmitrij Kollars (50) | 2647 | ||
| GM Bassem Amin (62) | 2636 | 0 - 1 | GM Divya Deshmukh (115) | 2478 |
Divya and Goryachkina have followed exactly the same path—losing their first game, making two draws against strong opponents, and then winning in round four. Goryachkina's win over GM Dmitrij Kollars was remarkably smooth, but Divya confessed, "The opening was quite a rough start for me."
She turned things around against GM Bassem Amin, Africa's best player with a peak rating of over 2700. The finishing touches were spectacular!
With Monday's round five we're approaching the tournament's halfway mark, Rapport is the player tasked with stopping Maghsoodloo. The Hungarian GM had some good fortune in round four, since GM Alexandr Predke resigned or lost on time in a still playable position in the round. Highlights in the battle of players on three points include Mishra vs. Gukesh and Abdusattorov vs. Erdogmus.
FIDE Grand Swiss Round 5 Pairings (Top 21)
| # | White | FED | Rtg | Result | Black | FED | Rtg |
| 1 | GM Richard Rapport (3) | 2711 | - | GM Parham Maghsoodloo (3.5) | 2692 | ||
| 2 | GM Matthias Bluebaum (3) | 2671 | - | GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (3) | 2785 | ||
| 3 | GM Arjun Erigaisi (3) | 2771 | - | GM Nikita Vitiugov (3) | 2666 | ||
| 4 | GM Abhimanyu Mishra (3) | 2611 | - | GM Gukesh Dommaraju (3) | 2767 | ||
| 5 | GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi (3) | 2610 | - | GM Vincent Keymer (3) | 2751 | ||
| 6 | GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (3) | 2748 | - | GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (3) | 2646 | ||
| 7 | GM Nodirbek Yakubboev (3) | 2681 | - | GM Szymon Gumularz (3) | 2590 | ||
| 8 | GM Sam Shankland (2.5) | 2670 | - | GM Alireza Firouzja (2.5) | 2754 | ||
| 9 | GM Anish Giri (2.5) | 2746 | - | GM Grigoriy Oparin (2.5) | 2660 | ||
| 10 | GM Levon Aronian (2.5) | 2744 | - | GM Shant Sargsyan (2.5) | 2653 | ||
| 11 | GM Nikolas Theodorou (2.5) | 2646 | - | GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (2.5) | 2742 | ||
| 12 | GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2.5) | 2741 | - | GM Saleh Salem (2.5) | 2640 | ||
| 13 | GM Hans Moke Niemann (2.5) | 2733 | - | GM Anton Demchenko (2.5) | 2620 | ||
| 14 | GM Vidit Gujrathi (2.5) | 2712 | - | GM Ivan Cheparinov (2.5) | 2627 | ||
| 15 | GM Maxim Rodshtein (2.5) | 2645 | - | GM Awonder Liang (2.5) | 2698 | ||
| 16 | GM Nihal Sarin (2.5) | 2693 | - | GM Leon Luke Mendonca (2.5) | 2615 | ||
| 17 | GM Samuel Sevian (2.5) | 2692 | - | GM Vasyl Ivanchuk (2.5) | 2608 | ||
| 18 | GM Robert Hovhannisyan (2.5) | 2629 | - | GM Jorden van Foreest (2.5) | 2692 | ||
| 19 | GM V Pranav (2.5) | 2596 | - | GM Andrey Esipenko (2.5) | 2687 | ||
| 20 | GM Aydin Suleymanli (2.5) | 2602 | - | GM Amin Tabatabaei (2.5) | 2673 | ||
| 21 | GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2) | 2738 | - | GM Andy Woodward (2.5) | 2557 |
Women: Lagno Catches Vaishali
Half of the games were decisive on the top boards in the Women's section, and it could have been more.
Round 4 Results: Women
Check out the full games and results.
Vaishali's 100-percent record was ended by Wagner, who caught her opponent in deep Grunfeld preparation. Vaishali fell far behind on the clock, but as her German opponent explained:
At some point Vaishali spent around 40 minutes thinking about the best move... and she found it! It was a bit unlucky, but I think afterwards we both played quite well, and a draw was a very fair result in this game.
The player to take advantage and catch Vaishali was Lagno, whose third win featured a pawn storm in the Sicilian. It seems Song had to play the famous Sicilian rook sacrifice on c3 when she had the chance, and when she didn't, her opponent cruised to victory.
Two winning streaks came to an end, with GM Tan Zhongyi scraping a draw from a lost position against IM Nurgyul Salimova, while GM Mariya Muzychuk lost her way and the game against creative attacking play by IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva. That was one of six upset wins in the Women's section.
FIDE Women's Grand Swiss Round 4 Upset Wins
| Player (Seed) | FED | Rtg | Result | Player (Seed) | FED | Rtg |
| IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva (33) | 2385 | 1 - 0 | GM Mariya Muzychuk (6) | 2484 | ||
| IM Teodora Injac (12) | 2454 | 0 - 1 | IM Guo Qi (42) | 2371 | ||
| IM Lu Miaoyi (14) | 2449 | 0 - 1 | IM Mai Narva (31) | 2386 | ||
| IM Meri Arabidze (16) | 2444 | 0 - 1 | WIM Umida Omonova (52) | 2252 | ||
| WIM Elnaz Kaliakhmet (51) | 2299 | 1 - 0 | GM Valentina Gunina (19) | 2418 | ||
| IM Klaudia Kulon (45) | 2361 | 0 - 1 | WIM Lina Nassr (56) | 2059 |
There were several painful losses that might be put down to the grueling format of the tournament. GM Irina Krush blundered a piece in one move against 16-year-old local hero WIM Afruza Khamdamova...
...while IM Vantika Agrawal was down to two seconds on her clock when she grabbed a piece and stumbled into checkmate against GM Alexandra Kosteniuk.
We now get a huge clash of the leaders in round five, with Vaishali White against Lagno.
FIDE Women's Grand Swiss Round 5 Pairings (Top 11)
| White | FED | Rtg | Result | Black | FED | Rtg | |
| 1 | GM Vaishali Rameshbabu (3.5) | 2452 | - | GM Kateryna Lagno (3.5) | 2505 | ||
| 2 | GM Antoaneta Stefanova (3) | 2395 | - | WIM Afruza Khamdamova (3) | 2409 | ||
| 3 | IM Irina Bulmaga (3) | 2400 | - | IM Dinara Wagner (3) | 2400 | ||
| 4 | GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (2.5) | 2472 | - | IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva (3) | 2385 | ||
| 5 | GM Elina Danielian (2.5) | 2405 | - | GM Tan Zhongyi (2.5) | 2531 | ||
| 6 | GM Bibisara Assaubayeva (2.5) | 2505 | - | IM Nurgyul Salimova (2.5) | 2386 | ||
| 7 | IM Carissa Yip (2.5) | 2458 | - | GM Olga Girya (2.5) | 2386 | ||
| 8 | IM Stavroula Tsolakidou (2.5) | 2445 | - | IM Khanim Balajayeva (2.5) | 2331 | ||
| 9 | IM Guo Qi (2.5) | 2371 | - | GM Anna Ushenina (2.5) | 2409 | ||
| 10 | IM Song Yuxin (2.5) | 2409 | - | IM Olga Badelka (2.5) | 2375 | ||
| 11 | WGM Zhai Mo (2.5) | 2380 | - | WGM Anna Shukhman (2) | 2420 |
How to watch?
You can watch the day's broadcast on the Chess24 YouTube or Twitch channels. The games can also be reviewed from our dedicated events page.
The broadcast was hosted by GMs Judit Polgar and David Howell.
The 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss and FIDE Women's Grand Swiss are 11-round Swiss tournaments taking place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on September 4-15. Each will decide two places in the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournaments that select the next world championship challengers. The Open tournament has a $625,000 prize fund, with $90,000 for first place, while the Women's is $230,000 ($40,000). The time control is classical, with a longer time control for the Open of 100 minutes/40 moves + 50 min/20 + 15 min, with a 30-second increment from move 1.
Previous coverage:
Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
