Firouzja Beats Gukesh, Joins 4-Way Tie In 1st

After six rounds of the Superbet Chess Classic Romania 2025, we are still far from having a frontrunner. Four players are tied in first place. In the only decisive game of the round, GM Alireza Firouzja defeated World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju to join the three others who were already in the lead: GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana, and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. Gukesh, after his second loss, is now in last place on 2/6.

Round seven is on Wednesday, May 14, starting at 8:30 a.m. ET / 14:30 CET / 6:00 p.m. IST.

Caruana vs. GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac was the draw with the most intrigue, though the Romanian number-one exhibited great defense, with little time, to hold a position where he was—though only briefly—lost.

Round 6 Results

With three rounds to go, the tournament is wide open, with all but one of the players within a point of the leader.

Standings After Round 6

Vachier-Lagrave ½-½ Abdusattorov

We begin with the quickest game of the day, which was over in 10 moves and about 20 minutes. Vachier-Lagrave, caught in a surprise out of the opening, started repeating on move seven and GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov obliged.

The French number-two, saying he was still feeling unwell and spent most of the rest day in bed, explained, "I felt like it would be not very practical to play this position without any memories [of what to do]" and "I thought I should take as little risk as possible."

Caruana ½-½ Deac

After his quick game, Vachier-Lagrave commentated for a few minutes about the others. At this point, the American champion already played his surprise opening idea, 5.Qa4, a move GM Cristian Chirila said had been prepared several tournaments ago.

Vachier-Lagrave thought Caruana's opening strategy was a good one for this game, saying: "I think it's pretty smart from Fabi because Bogdan likes to think too much on openings and later on, so he's trying to build up some time pressure."

Chirila reveals that Caruana's had this opening line prepared for a few tournaments now!

Objectively, it gives Black a slight advantage, but not so easy in practice! https://t.co/vyeFtpqEXp#GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/NNuAfUS1DC

— chess24 (@chess24com) May 13, 2025

The move isn't a novelty, but it hadn't been played by a player rated over 2500 before. We got a complicated middlegame that quickly exploded, with Caruana sacrificing his knight on move 15. Deac held his own, however, until mutual time trouble leading up to move 40 ensued, and move 37 was when the position started turning in Caruana's favor. 

On move 40, Caruana had two choices, only one of which was winning. He said after the game, "It's a 50-50 choice and I chose very poorly." Deac defended well from that point on to save the half-point.

Had he won, Caruana would have broken out to the sole lead. Still, +1 is still enough to share the lead with others.

Firouzja 1-0 Gukesh

Onto our Game of the Day, which was a great struggle despite serious mistakes by both sides. Firouzja achieved a winning advantage and let it go several times, but it was Gukesh who made the last mistake when he traded into an endgame that was, in fact, not a draw.

Firouzja said, "I think it should've been a very smooth game actually. After the opening I'm much better. I think I just spent too much time for no reason." As Firouzja pointed out, 30.Re4 would have made his life much easier, and he underestimated Black's defensive chances when he played 30.Qxg4.

Later on, Gukesh reached a bishop vs. rook endgame that should have been holdable, but mixed something up at the very end with the decisive mistake 53...Bg5??. Firouzja explained, "I think he just thought that this is a theoretical draw, but it's the wrong bishop. It should be the white-colored bishop."

Right after finding the only move 52...Bxf6, Gukesh blunders immediately after 53.Rxb4 Bg5??. With the bishop off of the long diagonal, Black is going to run into zugzwang.https://t.co/taxSxFHMTW #GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/RefYnnYZMA

— chess24 (@chess24com) May 13, 2025

GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the full Game of the Day below.

Firouzja's had great positions throughout the tournament, but this is his first win since round one. In a good mood now, he said, "I think I should've won all the games except [against] Fabiano, I think. I was winning in all the games and I was never in trouble... now it's a fair result, I think." 

... now it's a fair result, I think.

—Alireza Firouzja

It's a disappointing tournament so far for the 18-year-old world champion, who finds himself as the only player in last place. GM Peter Svidler said, "With Gukesh, I've never seen him play this poorly," but also said this: "I'm not expecting this to last for more than one event. I think he's way too stable and way too good."

Duda ½-½ Praggnanandhaa 

Of the remaining two draws, Praggnanandhaa had the the best chance to press an advantage. GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda's 12.b4 was the move the commentary team pointed to as the beginning of Duda's troubles, although White isn't exactly worse if he knows to sacrifice the exchange on the next move.

Duda didn't, and the Indian grandmaster had an initiative. Although Praggnanandhaa won a queen for a rook and knight, he wasn't able to convert that to a full point, and he was never more than slightly better. 

So ½-½ Aronian

Although GM Wesley So started with 1.c4, the opening transposed into a Queen's Gambit Declined Ragozin Variation. GM Levon Aronian went for the throat with the aggressive, though risky, 8...h5, a move he'd already employed against So in a blitz game during the American Cup 2025.

So responded with the rare try 9.Be5, but Aronian was prepared for that one too. There were plenty of underlying sparks for fireworks, but they never quite transpired; So forced the draw by perpetual check. “Levon’s one of the best-prepared players on the planet—it’s hard to get anything going from the opening," said So.

The most critical matchup on Wednesday will be Praggnanandhaa vs. Firouzja, two leaders. Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave will have the black pieces, respectively, against Aronian and Deac. An added question will be: how hard will Gukesh fight to recover, with the white pieces against So?

The 2025 Superbet Romania Chess Classic is the second event on the 2025 Grand Chess Tour and runs from May 7 to 16 at the Grand Hotel Bucharest in Romania. It's a 10-player round-robin with a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment starting on move one. The prize fund is $350,000.

Previous coverage:

• Round 5: All Sharp Games, All Draws In Bucharest
• Round 4: Vachier-Lagrave Beats World Champion Gukesh, Joins Shared Lead
• Round 3: Caruana, Praggnanandhaa Lead After Scoring 1st Wins
• Round 2: Vachier-Lagrave, Deac Bounce Back From Losses
• Round 1: Firouzja Cracks MVL's French Defense, Leads With Wesley So