The Week in Chess

1. Chess Stars 5.0 2025 - Games and Results

   The Chess Stars 5.0 tournament took place in Moscow 26th to 30th June 2025. Players: Vladislav Artemiev, Sergey Karjakin, Teimour Radjabov, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Raunak Sadhwani, Hou Yifan, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Kateryna Lagno, Bibisara Assaubayeva and Valentina Gunina. 3 days of rapid was followed by 2 days of blitz. Vladislav Artemiev won the rapid with 7/9 and blitz with 14.5/18. Raunak Sadhwani was second in the rapid and Sergey Karjakin second in the blitz.

2. Niemann-Vidit Match 2025 - Games and Results

   The Hans Moke Niemann against Santosh Vidit blitz match on Endgame.ai eventually took place 28th to 29th June 2025 after being announced for earlier in the week. Niemann won 12-6 on day 1 which was 3m+1spm blitz and 10.5-7.5 on day 2 which turned out to be Chess960 (in advance material there was no mention so I concluded it would be two days of standard blitz) and 3m+2spm blitz. On day one Niemann lost game 8 due to a mouse-slip and won on time in game 11 which he seemed to regard as payback.

   The downloadable PGN from the official site got a bit closer, the starting positions on day 2 for Chess960 were a real bonus, having the same players as white and black in every game meant half were wrong. Also still no results but fixing all this took less time than previous events. I don't have a way to display Chess960, but both day's games are available for download.

3. 2nd Uzchess Cup 2025 - Games and Results

   The 2nd Uzchess Cup took place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 19th to 27th June. There are three round robin tournaments and an open. Players: Masters: Arjun, Erigaisi,Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Praggnanandhaa, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Chithambaram V Aravindh, Richard Rapport, Javokhir Sindarov,Parham Maghsoodloo, Nodirbek Yakubboev,Shamsiddin Vokhidov. The Challengers had Vasyl Ivanchuk as top seed.

   Praggnanandhaa won a tie-break above Javokhir Sindarov and Nodirbek Abdusattorov but only after a double round robin blitz was drawn and they had to play an additional single round robin where Praggnanandhaa beat Sindarov in round 2 to take the tournament.

4. Titled Tuesday Blitz 24th June 2025 - Games and Results

   The Titled Tuesday Blitz 24th June saw wins for V Pranav in the early and Denis Lazavik in the late, both finishing on 10/11.

   In the early Pranav won his final round game against the leader Hans Moke Niemann, a four knights which proved to be a pretty convincing carve up. Magnus Carlsen was effectively out of the running after three rounds, in round 2 he was held to a draw by nine-year-old Indian player Aarit Kapil - in fact Carlsen was dead lost for most of the second half of the game (although out of the opening he had a large advantage). Carlsen then did lose in round 3, to 15 year-old Russian Maksim Ivannikov, Carlsen was winning, allowed his opponent back into the game who then proceeded to take his chance when offered a win.

   In the late Denis Lazavik beat close rivals Oleksandr Bortnyk, Hikaru Nakamura and Volodar Murzin and drew with Fabiano Caruana and Parham Maghsoodloo on the way to 10/11. Carlsen played but finished nowhere and withdrew after 8 rounds, he was out of the running following losses against Jakhongir Vakhidov and Daniel Naroditsky (26...Kc7? blundered a simple tactic) in rounds 4 and 6.

   I give the games for download, the size of the files makes putting them in a viewer unwise for load on my server and not very useful.

5. Hans Moke Niemann vs Levon Aronian Blitz Match 2025 - Games and Results

   Hans Moke Niemann played Levon Aronian in an 18 game blitz match on Endgame.ai. Aronian won the final two games to win the match 9.5-8.5. I managed to retrieve the games from the server.

6. Carissa Yip wins the Cairns Cup - 4-9

   The fifth Cairns Cup finished on Thursday with victory for 21 year old Carissa Yip who drew with her closest rival, 15 year old Alice Lee, to secure clear first place. Yip and Lee were formally the bottom two seeds in the event but there was reason to believe even before the event started that both players were considerably better than that. Neither has been very active outside the United States, Yip is studying Computer Science and Math at Stanford University (I now hear that at some point recently she dropped out) and Lee is still at school, yet their powerful play at the US Championships in October, where Yip was champion and Lee finished third with only one defeat, already marked them out as leading women's players.

7. 5th Cairns Cup 2025 - Games and Results

   The 5th Cairns Cup took place in St Louis 10th to 20th June 2025. This women's event had the following players: Tan Zhongyi, Humpy Koneru, Nana Dzagnidze, Alina Kashlinskaya, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Mariya Muzychuk, Harika Dronavalli, Nino Batsiashvili, Carissa Yip and Alice Lee. The event is named in honor of co-founder Dr. Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield’s maiden name.

   The event turned out to be a battle between the eventual winner 21 year old Carissa Yip and 15 year old Alice Lee. Yip only needed a draw with white in the final round to win, she was winning at one stage but had to settle for a draw. Yip made a second GM norm. Humpy Koneru had been leading after 6 rounds but lost her last three games.

8. Titled Tuesday Blitz 17th June 2025 - Games and Results

   The Titled Tuesday Blitz of 17th June saw Magnus Carlsen win the early and Hans Niemann win the late. Carlsen's win in the early was a little unusual in that he met all his closest rivals beating Aleksei Sarana in round 7, Jeffery Xiong in round 8, Alireza Firouzja in round 9 and Hans Niemann in round 10 (these finished 2nd-5th). Carlsen drew the final round to finish on 10.5/11. Hans Niemann won the late with 10/11 beating Nakamura in round 9 and drawing with second place Fabiano Caruana in round 10.

   Games in PGN available for download but they're a bit large to display.