Anish Giri 7/9 takes Sharjah Masters 2025
Dutch icon Anish Giri swept to the Sharjah Masters 2025 title with 7/9 score that fetched him a winner’s purse of $ 15000 along with valuable rating Elos & FIDE Circuit points. With a rating restriction of 2450+ for starters, the Sharjah Masters International Chess Championship 2025 “A” was as strong as it gets. The “A” category tournament saw 64 GMs in action among 82 players (IM Seemann Jakub from Poland was the bottom seed at ELO 2453) representing 31 countries. The nine round event ran from 17th to 25th May, 2025 at the grand Sharjah Chess Club, Sharjah, UAE.
Following steady shows in the Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee & Prague Masters GM Anish GIri come up with a heart-warming performance in the Arab peninsula. In addition to the Sharjah title, the Grandmaster from The Hague secured 20.94 FIDE Circuit points moving into the third spot with 38.58 points behind GMs Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (68.40) and Ding Liren (40.64) for the Candidates qualification. The rating gain of his ELO 2834 performance (five wins & four draws) saw him move upto 12th place in the LIVE rating list.
Top seed Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) survived a losing position in the first round against Indian Grandmaster Sethuraman, but went on to finish the tournament with 6.5 points tying for the second spot. A final round victory against GM Tabatabaei M Amin would have placed him on shared first, but the gritty Grandmaster from Iran hung on to deny a victory for the Uzbek.
Snatching the media glare away from Giri was IM Bibisara Assaubayeva who made her final Grandmaster Norm completing her GM title requirements. The Kazakh is the 43rd woman to become a Grandmaster and the first since Vaishali Rameshbabu (India) became a GM in 2023. Assaubayeva on her way to an ELO 2621 rating performance, crossed the requisite ELO 2500 mark in LIVE ratings becoming the latest GM Elect.
Final Rankings: 1 Giri Anish (Ned) 7.0, 2-3 Indjic Aleksandar (Srb), Abdusattorov Nodirbek (Uzb) 6.5, 4-9 Ivic Velimir (Srb), Sargsyan Shant (Arm), Tabatabaei M Amin (IRI), Theodorou Nikolas (Gre), Amar Elham (Nor), Muradli, Mahammad (Aze) 6.0, 10 Aditya Mittal (Ind) 5.5 pts (82 players)
Parham Maghsoodloo (2706) – Anish Giri (2738) 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Nbd2 Be7 6. Bd3 O-O 7. O-O Nbd7 8. Qc2 h6 9. Rd1 c5 10. dxc5 Nxc5 11. Be2 b6 12. a3 Bb7 13. b4 Ncd7 14. cxd5 Nxd5 15. Bb2 Rc8 16. Qb3 Qc7 17. Bb5 N5f6 18. Rac1 Qb8 19. Qa4 Rxc1 20. Rxc1 Rd8 21. h3 a5 22. bxa5 Nc5 23. Rxc5 bxc5 24. a6 Ba8 25. Nc4 Nd5 26. Nfe5 Nb6 27. Nxb6 Qxb6 28. Nc4 Qa7 29. Bc3 Bf6 30. Ba5 Rb8 31. Nd6? (31. Bd2 keeps the balance)
31…Be5 32. Nc4 Qxa6 33. Nb6 Qa7 34. Bd3 Bc7 35. Nc4 Bd5 0-1
Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2771) – Iniyan Pa (2573) 1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nc3 Nb6 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. O-O Be7 8. b3 Bf5 9. Bb2 Qd7 10. a4 e4 11. Ne1 Bf6 12. d3 O-O-O 13. dxe4 Qxd1 14. Nxd1 Bxb2 15. Nxb2 Be6 16. a5 Nd7 17. Ned3 Nd4 18. b4 Nxe2+ 19. Kh1 h5 20. h4 f6 21. Rae1 Nd4 22. f4 Rhe8 23. Rf2 Bg4 24. Kh2 Nb8 25. Rc1 Na6 26. e5 c6 27. Be4 Kb8 28. Rb1 Nb5 29. Bg6 Re7 30. Nc4 Be6 31. Ne3 Bf7 32. Bh7 g6 33. f5 Rxd3 34. fxg6 Rxe3 35. exf6 Rd7 36. gxf7 Rxf7 37. Bg6 Rf8 38. Bxh5 Re6 39. f7 Nc3? (39…Nac7 was the best reply here)
40. Rbf1 Nd5 41. g4 Naxb4 42. g5 Re4 43. Kg3 Nd3 44. g6 Nxf2 45. g7 1-0
Complete Results
Picture Courtesy: Official Site
