In the Challengers Assaubayeva, Lu, Panesar, and Suleymanli tied for first after the first round.
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Last edited by Hans Jung; Saturday, 17 January, 2026, 05:18 PM. -
In the Challengers Lu survived harem scarem tactics to win and tie for firstComment
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The two strongest women in the Challengers, Assaubayeva and Yip, both won in the first round and are off to a good start.Last edited by Hans Jung; Sunday, 18 January, 2026, 12:24 PM.Comment
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Gukesh had a plus five edge with two rooks and a knight (and pawns) vs queen (and pawns) and the king on the edge but could not pull out the win. Exciting!Comment
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In rd 2 the three leaders all have Black, Van Nguyen vs Erigaisi, Fedoseev vs Keymer and Bluebaum vs Niemann. Gukesh vs Van Foreest.Comment
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Too many blunders for my liking. Give them pea soup. It should settle them down.Comment
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Having said that they seem to have settled down into round two. But its early hours yet.Comment
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Andy Woodward made up for his round 1 faux pas with some nice sacks against Eline Roebers leading to a successful king hunt.Comment
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Faustino Oro played a masterpiece against Erwin L'Ami. The magic of the d5 square when it works for you! First win for Oro who is going for the gold of the grandmaster title.Comment
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Carissa Yip also scores her first win with sparkling tactics always keeping an eye on her opponent's king against Max Warmerdam. She is also seeking the grandmaster title in this tournament.Comment
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Miaoyi Lu dominated Panesar tactically and scored a nice win.Comment
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In the Masters Vincent Keymer took a hard loss. Where did it all go wrong? The inspired 17. Nd5 looked overwhelming but Black recovered finding a tricky queen exchange. However it turned out White's pieces had the better squares and that Black's position was creaking around the edges.Comment
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and then there was the fascinating endgame between Abdusattarov and Pragga. Pragga played the inspired 28....Nc4, certainly an eye-popper!, but Abdusattarov went for the seventh and the weak A pawn. The move d4 looked interesting but it turned out that White's win of the D-pawn turned out to be a game winner. Still we have Pragga to thank for an exciting endgame.Comment
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