Superbet Classic R2: MVL and Deac bounce back
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) and Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU) bounced back by scoring a win each in Round 2 of Grand Chess Tour Superbet Chess Classic 2025. The only two players who lost their respective first round games, scored a win in the second round. R Praggnanandhaa and the reigning World Champion - D Gukesh had well contested draws against Fabiano Caruana (USA) and Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB) respectively. Alireza Firouzja (FRA) has emerged early sole leader 1.5/2. Gukesh will face Deac and Praggnanandhaa will go up against Abdusattorov in Round 3. It starts today from 3 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour
Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh draw their respective games
Vachier-Lagrave - So: 1-0
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 2723) lost the first round against Alireza Firouzja (FRA) due to a blunder. Maxime's opponent, Wesley So (USA, 2751) won his game due to his opponent, Bogdan-Daniel Deac's (ROU) blunder. The game reached a rook and knight vs rook and bishop endgame with White having an extra pawn by move no.25. Draw seemed to be the obvious result but in a practical game, the obvious doesn't often come true.
In the above position, 48...f4 49.Ng4 Ra2 50.Ne5+ Kd6 and Black could have comfortably drawn the game. Instead, 48...Kb7 started making things difficult for him 49.a6+ Ka7 50.Rc3 Kb6 51.Nc2 Rd2 52.Nb4 Bd7 53.Ra3 Ka7 54.Re3 Rd1+ 55.Kh2 g4? 56.hxg4 fxg4 57.fxg4 Bxg4 58.Re4 Bc8 59.Rxh4 White is now completely winning and he went on to convert his advantage.
Bogdan-Daniel - Aronian: 1-0
Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU, 2668) had never defeated Levon Aronian (USA, 2747) in a Classical rated game until yesterday. Previously they drew two games and Aronian won one. Two out of their three games were at this event only in 2021 and 2022. After a one-move blunder against Wesley So, the Romania no. 1 was determined to redeem that loss.
29...Nd7 prompted White to play 30.b4 c4? 31.Nb2 Nb6 32.a4 and White slowly started outplaying Black Bf8 33.a5 Na8 34.a6 Nd6 35.Rxd5 White went on to win the game. The conversion was not the perfect one but Aronian's one final mistake in the resultant rook and few pawns endgame, once again put White in control.
Replay live commentary
Schedule and Format
Superbet Chess Classic will have one round per day from 7th to 16th April. Rest day is on Monday 12th April. Each round starts at 3 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST, except the last round which starts at 2 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. It will be a 10-player Round Robin event. Time control will be 40 moves in 90 minutes + 30 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.
Prize
The total prize fund for each Classical event is US$ 350000. The top three prizes are US$ 100000, $65000 and $48000.
Round 2 results
| Bo. | No. | FED | Rtg | White | Result | Black | FED | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 | FRA | 2723 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 1 - 0 | GM | So, Wesley | USA | 2751 | 3 | |||
| 2 | 8 | ROU | 2668 | GM | Deac, Bogdan-Daniel | 1 - 0 | GM | Aronian, Levon | USA | 2747 | 4 | |||
| 3 | 10 | USA | 2776 | GM | Caruana, Fabiano | ½ - ½ | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | IND | 2758 | 6 | |||
| 4 | 1 | POL | 2739 | GM | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | ½ - ½ | GM | Firouzja, Alireza | FRA | 2757 | 2 | |||
| 5 | 7 | UZB | 2771 | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | ½ - ½ | GM | Gukesh, D | IND | 2787 | 5 |
Standings after Round 2
Round 3 pairings
| Bo. | No. | FED | Rtg | White | Result | Black | FED | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | IND | 2787 | GM | Gukesh, D | GM | Deac, Bogdan-Daniel | ROU | 2668 | 8 | ||||
| 2 | 6 | IND | 2758 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | UZB | 2771 | 7 | ||||
| 3 | 4 | USA | 2747 | GM | Aronian, Levon | GM | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | FRA | 2723 | 9 | ||||
| 4 | 3 | USA | 2751 | GM | So, Wesley | GM | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | POL | 2739 | 1 | ||||
| 5 | 2 | FRA | 2757 | GM | Firouzja, Alireza | GM | Caruana, Fabiano | USA | 2776 | 10 |
