The Week in Chess

1. Superbet Poland Rapid & Blitz 2025 - Games and Results

   The Superbet Poland Rapid & Blitz takes place Sat 26th Apr 2025 to Thu 1st May 2025. Players: Praggnanandhaa, Firouzja, Aravindh, Aronian, Duda, Fedoseev, Vachier-Lagrave, Topalov, Deac, Gavrilescu. A three day rapid is followed by a two day blitz event.

2. Bundesliga 2024-25 - Games and Results

   The Bundesliga takes place Sat 28th Sep 2024 to Sun 27th Apr 2025. Duesseldorfer SK leads by three points over SC Viernheim going into the final three rounds held in Deggendorf. They do meet in round 15 but likely Duesseldorfer SK will have won by then. Baden Baden are a further point behind in 3rd place.

3. IV Menorca Open 2025 - Games and Results

   The IV Menorca Open takes place Tue 22nd Apr to Sun 27th Apr 2025. Players: Nihal Sarin, Sam Shankland, Volodar Murzin, Karthikeyan, Puranik, Pranav, Lu Shanglei. Vasyl Ivanchuk etc.

4. Chess this weekend - 25th to 27th April 2025 -

   The Grand Chess Tour kicks off with the Superbet Poland Rapid & Blitz starting on Saturday at 1pm BST. Players: Praggnanandhaa, Firouzja, Aravindh, Aronian, Duda, Fedoseev, Vachier-Lagrave, Topalov, Deac, Gavrilescu.

   The final weekend of the German Bundesliga takes place in Deggendorf Friday 25th to Sunday 27th April. Duesseldorfer SK take a three point lead over SC Viernheim into these final three matches. They do meet in the final round 15 of the season on Sunday but the title will likely be settled by then. The relegation battle is a good deal closer. I look for big names in the Bundesliga but don't know who will play.

   Vasyl Ivanchuk has been playing nearly non-stop since February. He leads the IV Menorca Open on 5/5 after beating Nihal...

5. Chinese Teams 2025 - Games and Results

   The Chinese Team Championship takes place Fri 25th Apr to Sat 3rd May 2025 in Zhangjiakou, China. Players including Wang Yue, Li Chao B, Xu Xiangyu in the men's and Shen Yang and Ding Yixin in the women's.

6. Humpy Koneru edges out Zhu Jiner to win the Pune Women's Grand Prix - 9

   The Pune Women's Grand Prix was won by Humpy Koneru on tie-break from Zhu Jiner. Koneru mostly impressed with an important victory over Zhu in Round 7 and another long win today, she did survived against Alina Kashlinskaya in round 8 in her only weak game. Zhu also won a long game to share the Grand Prix points with Koneru.

   38 year old Koneru's win was her eighth Grand Prix and gave her the sole record she had shared with Hou Yifan.

   This Grand Prix was the fifth of a series of six events held in 2024 and 2025, two players will qualify for the next Women's Candidates tournament. Each player competes in three events. Alexandra Goryachkina leads the series ahead of Koneru with both having completed their three tournaments. 22 year old Jiner Zhu only needs a decent result in the final tournament to overtake Koneru. The final Grand Prix takes place in Grosslobming, Austria 5th to 16th of May.

7. Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2025 - Games and Results

   The Pune FIDE Women's Grand Prix took place April 13-24. Players: Humpy Koneru, Divya Deshmukh, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Harika Dronavalli, Nurgyul Salimova, Batkhuyag Munguntuul, Zhu Jiner, Alina Kashlinskaya, Melia Salome and Polina Shuvalova. Humpy Koneru just edged out Zhu Jiner to take first place on tie-break, both scored 7/9.