The ‘Turkish Immortal’ allowed two white queens on the board, then sacrificed the black queen for a pawn, followed by checkmate by a previously unmoved black pawn
There were two new frontrunners on Thursday at the $625,000 Grand Swiss in Samarkand on the ancient Silk Road, after Iran’s Parham Maghsoodloo, who had led for the first six rounds, was beaten. The top two finishers after 11 rounds will qualify for the 2026 Candidates and a potential title shot at the shaky crown of the world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju.
Leaders after round seven were Nihal Sarin (India) and Matthias Blübaum (Germany) 5.5, Maghsoodloo (Iran), Abhimanyu Mishra and Hans Niemann (US), Anish Giri (Netherlands), Alireza Firouzja (France), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) and Vidit Gujrathi (India) 5.
Sarin, 21, and Blübaum, 28, were seeded only Nos 20 and 32 at the start. They will be paired together in Friday’s eighth round, but can expect a rough ride in the final three rounds as the favourites make their bids for the Candidates.
This tournament will be remembered for two historic teenage achievements. Mishra, who is already a world record holder as the youngest ever grandmaster, at 12 years four months, set another landmark when, aged 16 years seven months, he defeated Gukesh in round five to become the youngest player ever to win against a reigning world champion, breaking the record set 33 years earlier by Gata Kamsky of the US, then 17 years 10 months, against Garry Kasparov at Dortmund 1992.
