D Gukesh Slips Again At FIDE Grand Swiss, Arjun Erigaisi Keeps Hopes Alive

Last Updated:September 09, 2025, 23:05 IST

D Gukesh suffers second loss at FIDE Grand Swiss to Nikolas Theodorou.

D Gukesh is undergoing a rough patch at the FIDE Grand Swiss (Picture credit: FIDE/Michal Walusza)

World Champion D Gukesh suffered his second successive loss at the FIDE Grand Swiss, losing to Greece’s Nikolas Theodorou in the sixth round on Tuesday.

After losing to the youngest-ever Grandmaster Abhimanyu Mishra of the USA in the previous round, Gukesh faced another setback from a drawn position as he overpressed, leading to complications and was punished.

At the top of the table, Arjun Erigaisi had little difficulty holding the sole leader, Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran, from the black side of a queen pawn game.

Although the Iranian still holds the sole lead with five points from his six games, Erigaisi ensured he is within striking distance of the leader, just half a point behind with 4.5 points.

Abhimanyu Mishra, Matthias Bluebaum of Germany, and Nihal Sarin jointly share the second spot alongside Erigaisi at the halfway stage in this significant and strongest Swiss tournament in the world.

On a day when top-seeded Grandmaster R Praggnanadhaa failed to break the solid defences of Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan, his sister R Vaishali cruised past Ulviyya Fataliyeva to remain in joint lead with Kateryna Lagno in the women’s section.

Vaishali remained in joint lead with FIDE representative Kateryna Lagno, who had to work hard to beat Dinara Wagner from what was likely a drawn endgame.

Vaishali was in total control with her black pieces as she launched an offensive on both flanks and was rewarded with a winning rook and pawns endgame thanks to her extra pawn.

Gukesh’s determination to win at all costs proved catastrophic. The world champion could have drawn the rook and pawns endgame, but a rare miscalculation cost him.

Now at fifty per cent, Gukesh has to win at least four of the remaining five games to stay in contention.

Praggnanandhaa tried his best, but Mamedov did not budge, while Sarin benefited from a huge tactical oversight by his Polish opponent, Szymon Gumularz, to move up the charts.

With the lone rest day scheduled on Wednesday, the battle for the top two places and the $855,000 prize fund will resume on Thursday in both sections.

The top two from each section will qualify for the Candidates tournament of 2026, which will determine the challenger for the next World Championship match in both men’s and women’s sections.

Important and Indian results round 6 open (Indians unless specified): Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri, 5) drew with Arjun Erigaisi (4.5); Matthias Bluebaum (Ger, 4.5) drew with Abhimanyu Mishra (Usa, 4.5); Marcandria Maurizzi (Fra, 4) lost to Anish Giri (Ned, 4.5); Amin Tabatabaei (Iri, 4) drew with Alireza Firouzja (Fra, 4); Maxim Rodshtein (Isr, 4) drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, ); Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (Tur, 4) drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 4); Szymon Gumularz (Pol, 3.5) lost to Nihal Sarin (4.5); Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb, 4) drew with V Pranav (3.5); R Praggnanandhaa (3.5) drew with Rauf Mamedov (Aze, 3.5); D Gukesh (3) lost to Nikolas Theodorou (Gre, 4); Anton Demchenko (Slo, 3) lost to Vidit Gujrathi (4); Abhimanyu Puranik (3.5) drew with Richard Rapport (Hun, 3.5); P Harikrishna (3) drew with Ediz Gurel (Tur, 3); Deac Bogdan-Daniel (Rou, 2.5) Leon Luke Mendonca (2.5); Aydin Suleymanli (Aze, 3) drew with Raunak Sadhwani (3); Aditya Mittal (3) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr, 3); S L Narayanan (3) drew with Nils Grandelius (Swe, 3); Vladislav Artemiev (Fid, 2.5) drew with Aryan Chopra (2.5); Gabriel Sargissian (Arm, 2.5) drew with Divya Deshmukh (2.5); Murali Karthikeyan (1.5) drew with Abdisalimov Abdimalik (Uzb, 1.5).

Women: Kateryna Lagno (Fid, 5) beat Dinara Wagner (Ger, 4); Ulviyya Fataliyeva (Aze, 4) lost to R Vaishali (5); Tan Zhongyi (Chn, 3.5) lost to Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul, 4.5); Afruza 0Khamdamova (Uzb, 4) drew with Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kaz, 4); Olga Girya (Fid, 3.5) drew with Yuxin Song (Chn, 3); Dronavalli Harika (3.5) beat Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (Uzb, 2.5); Vantika Agrawal (2.5) beat Lina Nassr (Alg, 1.5)

(With PTI Inputs)

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