Abdusattorov Beats Vitiugov To Grab Sole Lead
GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov's second win in a row, this time over GM Nikita Vitiugov, has given him the sole lead in the London Chess Classic's Elite Tournament on 2.5/3 after the remaining games were drawn. GM Michael Adams took a draw by repetition in a position GM Alireza Firouzja said he hated, GMs Gawain Maroroa Jones and Sam Shankland both had hopes in a sharp king-and-pawn endgame, while GM Pavel Eljanov pushed for 98 moves against GM Luke McShane. Only GM Abhimanyu Mishra vs. GM Nikolas Theodorou was a quiet draw.
The fourth round starts Saturday, November 29, at 11:00 a.m. ET / 17:00 CET / 9:30 p.m. IST.
Round 3 Results
Standings After Round 3
It's been a great week for Uzbek chess, with GM Javokhir Sindarov winning the FIDE World Cup and GM Nodirbek Yakubboev reaching the Semifinals. Uzbekistan's number-one Abdusattorov was unceremoniously knocked out of that event in round three by GM Jose Martinez, but his happiness for his teammates is clearly genuine, and left English GM David Howell reflecting on how different things are in the English team.
David Howell: "Playing for England has been the biggest honour of my career, but I've never really worked with the players. We've probably had a total of zero team meeting at international events. We've never prepared together, never discussed openings together..." pic.twitter.com/Dgs3kYOKSp
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 28, 2025
Howell made it clear that everyone gets along with each other, just that there isn't the same camaraderie.
Abdusattorov, meanwhile, set about repairing the rating damage done in Goa with a second win in a row.
Vitiugov 0-1 Abdusattorov
After blitzing out 34 moves of preparation the day before, Abdusattorov's round-three clash with Vitiugov was very different. He explained, "My approach was just to get a game, and I didn’t prepare too much." It worked to perfection, with Abdusattorov comparing his wins:
It’s fun in both ways! I’d prefer to win a long, strategic game because it helps you to get confidence and also it shows that you’re in good shape.
He was already feeling "very confident" early in the game "because my structure is very good and I can create a passed pawn in the center," but he got a huge helping hand when Vitiugov said he "totally missed" the undermining 26...a3!.
"You didn't hide it well!" joked Howell about the a-pawn previously being pushed from a7 to a5 to a4, but after this move Vitiugov was forced to exchange on f6 and put his pawn on b3, leaving his position in ruins, strategically speaking.
Abdusattorov went on to win a pawn and initially thought the rest would be easy before he understood that only a double-edged pawn break, or a knight sacrifice, could give him victory. He went for the latter, with 47...Nxb3!. Vitiugov delayed taking the knight for five moves, but when he finally bit the bullet, White was lost and Abdusattorov went on to clinch a fine game.
"I’m feeling great!" said Abdusattorov after the game.
The remaining four games were drawn, but only one passed more or less without incident.
Mishra ½-½ Theodorou
After getting outprepared by Abdusattorov a day earlier, it felt like Mishra was still somewhat traumatized. He met Theodorou's Sicilian with an early c3, explaining:
The issue was I played this mainly to get a game. Nikolas has actually in the past prepared like 40 moves against me, and I thought this line, maybe there's not so much preparation... Out of the opening, I just couldn’t see any way to even fight for an edge.
Mishra stumbled into a line Theodorou knew very well, and the Greek player explained that he was even tempted to play on before accepting an 18-move draw by repetition.
There was also a draw by repetition in the next game, but it raised far more questions.
Firouzja ½-½ Adams
Making a draw with Black against a player as formidable as Firouzja is not to be sniffed at, but Adams could have played on at the end of his game against the young star.
A big moment for Mickey Adams — Alireza Firouzja is offering a draw by repetition, but Black seems to be better and has an edge on the clock! https://t.co/YpOnZP9dc1 pic.twitter.com/RIOhwWS1B6
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 28, 2025
"Everything went wrong for me," said Firouzja, who commented about the draw: "For me it’s decent. I hated my position at the end! I found a way to make a repetition and I’m happy."
I hated my position at the end!
—Alireza Firouzja
Adams was ahead on the clock but noted, "The clock's not a factor against Alireza," before adding, "It was just the position—I kind of felt that I should play on, but then I didn’t really think I was better, and then I thought, 'Why am I playing on?'"
The decision was understandable, however, since the position was highly complex, with lines in which the black queen could get trapped and no easy plan for either player.
That brings us to a game that looked destined to end fast, but both players saw chances in a tricky endgame
Maroroa Jones ½-½ Shankland
This clash was a Four Knights Spanish, one of the openings we saw during the World Cup when players wanted a draw. "I was thinking we'd be done in half an hour!" said Shankland, but Maroroa Jones harbored some hopes in the double-rook endgame he steered the game toward: "I think I showed I wasn’t playing for a draw in this game; otherwise, I’d have taken the draw back at move 30, not gone into this interesting ending."
What made the ending so interesting is that both players were optimistic. For instance, after 38.b3 Maroroa Jones commented, "I thought I was winning here!" while Shankland countered, "I thought if anyone was playing for a win, it was me." Firouzja and Adams were also fascinated by the sharp endgame, while the computer simply spits out its usual 0.00, even if it requires extreme precision by the players to prove it is a draw.
That left one very long-burning game in play.
Eljanov ½-½ McShane
Organizer IM Malcolm Pein dropped by during this game to recall how before round one of the very first London Chess Classic in 2009, he'd told the people at the Olympia venue that the chess would likely last about five hours, and six would be an outlier. Instead an epic 163-move win followed for McShane against GM Nigel Short.
A win looked unlikely in 2025 as Eljanov was pressing for almost all of the 98-move clash, but as Howell explained:
Luke’s the quiet ambitious type. He won’t show it. He’ll look like he’s under pressure for most of the game, but if you just go low on the clock, he suddenly behaves differently, feels differently, will take a bit more risk against you!
Luke's the quiet ambitious type!
—David Howell on Luke McShane
It never quite happened for either player, with the game ultimately ending nine moves short of when the 50-move draw would have kicked in, and after numerous chances to claim a three-fold repetition had already been passed over.
Adams-Abdusattorov and Firouzja-Eljanov will be among the key matchups in Saturday's round four.
Meanwhile in the FIDE Open, it's so far, so good for GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, who leads on a perfect 3/3 along with his countryman GM Pranav Anand. Praggnanandhaa turned on the style for the double round on Friday, first beating Ukrainian GM Eldar Gasanov with a sparkling attack.
It was more of the same in the second game of the day, though Praggnanandhaa ended up having to grind out a tricky queen endgame.
There's just one game in the FIDE Open on Saturday, starting at the same time as the Elite games, which is 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CET / 9:30 p.m. IST.
The live broadcast was hosted by GMs David Howell and Daniel King.
The 2025 XTX Markets London Chess Classic is a 10-player round-robin taking place November 26-December 5, 2025, at the Emirates Stadium. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting on move one.
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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.
