Erigaisi topples Vishy for Jerusalem Masters 2025 title
GM Erigaisi Arjun got the better of Indian legend GM Viswanathan Anand 2.5-1.5 to clinch the Jerusalem Masters 2025. GM Erigaisi pocketed a winner’s purse of $ 55,000 after getting through a round-robin followed by a knock-out semifinal against the evergreen GM Peter Svidler. On the other semis, former World Champion Vishy Anand overcame twice World Championship Challenger GM Ian Nepomniachtchi by a 1.5-0.5 score. Later, in an all-Russian losing semi-finalists match Svidler defeated Nepo snaring the third spot. This annual event ran from 30th November to 3rd December 2025 at the Museum of Tolerance, Jerusalem.
The knockout section saw both the Indian GMs Erigaisi Arjun and Viswanathan Anand scoring a similar 1.5-0.5 wins over Russian GMs Peter Svidler and Ian Nepomniachtchi respectively. The finals saw the younger GM Erigaisi putting it across Indian legend GM Viswanathan Anand 2.5-1.5, while 8 time Russian Champion GM Peter Svidler defeated fellow Grandmaster Ian Nepomnniachtchi by the same margin.
Earlier, the 12 player round-robin saw GM Peter Svidler topping the table with 8/11 score, coming from five wins and six draws. Sharing the second spot with 7.5 points were GMs Ian Nepomniachtchi, Viswanathan Anand and Erigaisi Arjun in that order. In a big advertisement for age five time world champion Viswanathan Anand went without a loss in the round-robin section with four wins & seven draws. Second seed GM Vladimir Fedoseev (2740) disappointed with 3.5/11 performance suffering through seven losses.
The Jerusalem Open 2025 held prior to the Masters saw a four way tie between GMs Arseniy Nesterov, Evgeny Alekseev, Momchil Nikolov andIdo Gorshtein at 8/9 points. 36 GMs from 37 federations participated in this 420 player nine round rapid event. Top seeded GM Daniel Fridman (2561) started well with 4/4 but slumped in the second half with a 2.5/5 score sharing the 28th place.
Erigaisi Arjun (2714) – Viswanathan Anand (2727) 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bf4 c6 7. e3 Bf5 8. Nh4 Bg6 9. Nxg6 hxg6 10. h3 Nbd7 11. Bd3 Nb6 12. Qc2 Bd6 13. O-O-O Bxf4 14. exf4 Qd6 15. Rde1+ Kf8 16. g3 Re8 17. Re5 Nfd7 18. Rxe8+ Kxe8 19. h4 Kd8 20. Qd2 Nf8 21. f5 gxf5 22. Qg5+ Qf6 23. Qxf6+ gxf6 24. Bxf5 Nc4 25. Ne2 Nd6 26. Bd3 f5 27. Kd2 Ne6 28. f3 Ke7 29. Ke3 Kf6 30. Nf4 Re8 31. Nxe6 fxe6 32. g4 e5 33. g5+ Kg6 34. dxe5 Rxe5+ 35. Kf4 Re8 36. h5+ Kg7 37. h6+ Kg6 38. h7 Kg7 39. g6 c5 40. Kg5 c4 41. Bxf5 d4 42. Bd7 Rd8 43. h8=Q+ Rxh8 44. Rxh8 Kxh8
45. Kh6 1-0
Ian Nepomniachtchi (2762) – Peter Svidler (2669) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. a4 b4 9. a5 d6 10. h3 h6 11. c3 Rb8 12. Bc4 Re8 13. d4 bxc3 14. bxc3 Bf8 15. Qa4 Na7 16. Qa2 Be6 17. Bxe6 Rxe6 18. d5 Re8 19. Be3 c5 20. Nfd2 Nb5 21. Qc2 Nd7 22. Na3 Nxa3 23. Rxa3 Be7 24. Nc4 Qc7 25. Rb1 Rb5 26. Rxb5 axb5 27. Nd2 Ra8 28. Qa2 Bg5 29. Bxg5 hxg5 30. Qa1 c4 31. a6 Nc5 32. Ra5 Qb6 33. a7 Nd3 34. Kh1 Qxf2 35. Nf3 b4 36. cxb4 c3 37. Qxc3 Nf4 38. Ne1
38…Ne2 0-1
Complete Results
Tournament Games
Photo Courtesy: Yoav Nis / Official Site
Official Site: https://jerusalem.chess.org.il/masters/
