Firouzja Flags Vs. Aravindh, Misses Out On Winning Rapid
GM Alireza Firouzja lost on time just when he seemed to have escaped against GM Aravindh Chithambaram and was set to be the sole leader of the 2025 Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland going into the 18 rounds of blitz. Instead he was caught by Aravindh, and also GM Vladimir Fedoseev, who pulled off a miraculous escape against GM Veselin Topalov. Almost no one is out of contention, with GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu winning his final two games to join GM Levon Aronian only a point behind the leaders.
Day four starts Tuesday, April 29, at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CEST / 5:30 p.m. IST.
- Standings
- Aravindh, Fedoseev, Firouzja Tie For 1st After Late Drama
- Praggnanandhaa Is Back—Aronian, MVL Also Move Into Contention
We have a three-way tie for first going into the Blitz, but perhaps only last-placed Topalov is out of contention to win the title.
Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland Standings After Rapid
Aravindh, Fedoseev, Firouzja Tie For 1st After Late Drama
The leaders at the start of the final day of rapid chess, Firouzja and Fedoseev, made draws in a relatively quiet first round, but they were caught by Aravindh, who went for an explosive sacrifice against GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda that he'd spotted in a game GM Arjun Erigaisi won against GM Wei Yi in the Chessable Masters earlier this year.
Aravindh explained that "practically it’s not easy for Black," while admitting that when the game soon left any theory he knew, "I just wanted to blitz out so he might think I’m still in my prep!"
Watch the interview with Aravindh right after his game against Duda to learn more about his sacrifice. Was it a bluff?😉#SuperbetRapidAndBlitz #chess #Grandchesstour pic.twitter.com/r23Hb3Fwbf
— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) April 28, 2025
Duda in fact managed to equalize and more, but the cost in time eventually proved fatal as Aravindh went on to win. That dramatic clash is our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao has analyzed below.
Fortune would swing again in round eight, however, as Aravindh was put to the sword by GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fedoseev made a solid draw against GM Levon Aronian, and Firouzja took the sole lead for the first time with a brutal win over GM Veselin Topalov.
Topalov's 5...g5!? was brave, but 17...g4? was verging on suicidal. It got hit by the powerful blow 18.Bxh6!.
So going into the final round of rapid chess it was advantage Firouzja, but he faced a tricky game with Black against Aravindh. At first, everything seemed to be under control, but then the Frenchman went for 24...Rxa4?, overlooking a tactical blow.
Aravindh, who had expected the move 24...d4!, was initially looking only at putting a rook on e1 or capturing on f6, but he's not a player for missing tactics. Praggnanandhaa commented earlier of his long-term friend and training partner, "I still look up to him, because the way he calculates, the way he finds things, is something that inspires me a lot!"
I still look up to him, because the way he calculates, the way he finds things, is something that inspires me a lot!
—Praggnanandhaa on Aravindh
Aravindh soon found 25.Rxd5!, later telling GM Maurice Ashley, "I’m winning—that was my first reaction!"
Firouzja fought back, however, and was able to equalize and even dream of winning himself, until he seemed simply to blunder a pawn. It left a three vs. two-pawn position that should be holdable for the weaker side, but as Aravindh explained: "Objectively it’s a draw, but practically it’s difficult for him. He just has to wait—it’s difficult for a human to do that!"
The game was eventually only decided after 87.Rd5, when Firouzja had 14 seconds left on his clock. With two seconds to go he went to make the move 87...Re7?, and would have managed, but he corrected himself at the last moment to 87...Ra7!. The move was good, but before he could hit the clock his time had run out.
An incredible finish to the Rapid, as Alireza Firouzja flags in an equal position and instead of taking the sole lead he's now level with Aravindh and Fedoseev! 🤯#GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/7f3EFXEv9H
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 28, 2025
That meant Aravindh had caught Firouzja, and the joy of the tour debutant was obvious: "My dream is to play with the best players in the world and I’m here, and I’m just enjoying each and every moment. I just love playing with these guys!"
I just love playing with these guys!
—Aravindh Chithambaram
It had seemed for a while that everything was going Firouzja's way. Not only was he making a draw, but his rival Fedoseev was on course to fall victim to the curse of bottom-placed Topalov: on both of the first two days Topalov had lost his first two games, then won the third.
Fedoseev called that "kind of an annoying fact," especially since it seemed his opponent believed in the prophecy! Fedoseev confessed, "He completely outplayed me and I escaped only by a miracle, and I believe I would not be able to repeat it once again in my life."
He completely outplayed me and I escaped only by a miracle, and I believe I would not be able to repeat it once again in my life.
—Fedoseev on Topalov
The first absolutely clear path to victory came on move 31.
Topalov could have played 31.Nf6+!, and unless Fedoseev wants to get checkmated by 31...Kh8?? 32.Nf7# he has to give up the exchange with 31...Rxf6, when White should win comfortably. Instead 31.Rxg4? let Fedoseev get back into the game, but more chances would follow, and it was only on move 69 that it was all over, when 69.d7? Ke6 allowed the key pawn to be picked up for a draw.
That game meant Fedoseev remains the only unbeaten player in Warsaw, after taking the lead on day one and then making six draws. As he put it, "I had five uneventful draws in a row and one extremely eventful one!"
Fedoseev is hoping he'll be able to switch quickly to blitz, and it may help that he only prepared for the five minutes plus two-second increment games in the run-up to the tournament.
Praggnanandhaa Is Back—Aronian, MVL Also Move Into Contention
While the three leaders deserve the limelight, none of them has yet shown dominance, which is why almost no one is out of contention. You certainly wouldn't rule out Duda, a twice world blitz championship runner-up, from being able to make up a three-point gap over 18 rounds of blitz.
That goes even more for the players who are closer. "I’m still in contention totally, just one point behind the leaders," said Praggnanandhaa, who was the top performer on day three with 5/6. He ended the rapid portion as he'd begun it, with two wins, shrugging off the 2/10 he'd scored in the intervening games. The last win against Duda was choppy, since despite getting an almost winning position on move six Praggnanandhaa eventually needed some over-ambition from Duda to clinch the win.
In the penultimate round, however, Praggnanandhaa found perhaps the move of the day to beat Romanian Champion GM David Gavrilescu. 21.c3? got punished much more dramatically than it seems such an innocuous move deserves!
Praggnanandhaa is joined in fourth place by Aronian, whose 4/6 included a win on time against Topalov, while just a point back is Vachier-Lagrave, who scored a smooth win over high-flying Aravindh.
The tournament remains anyone's to win—will one of the blitz stars such as Firouzja, Duda, or Vachier-Lagrave catch fire on the final two days?
The live broadcast was hosted by GM Yasser Seirawan, IM Nazi Paikidze, GM Peter Svidler, GM Maurice Ashley, and WGM Anastasiya Karlovich.
The 2025 Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland is the first event on the 2025 Grand Chess Tour and runs April 26-30 in the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland. The 10 players first compete in a single rapid round-robin with a time control of 25 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move, followed by a blitz double round-robin with a 5+2 time control.
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.
