Dejan Bojkov Chess Blog: Chess digest, Nov. 7–11: Carlsen takes Budapest's blitz tiebreak, Strutinskaia is 7/7, India reaches 100 grandmasters

Magnus Carlsen wins the blitz stage that sets every tiebreak in Budapest, Galina Strutinskaia goes 7/7 in Vrnjačka Banja, Anuj Shrivatri makes India's hundredth grandmaster, and FIDE's survey of women in chess gives up its retention numbers.

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Coverage window: after 10:45 Sofia time on November 7 through 10:45 on November 11, 2026.

The Total Chess World Championship Tour pilot opened in Budapest on Tuesday, and Magnus Carlsen won the blitz stage that sets every tiebreak through November 20. In Vrnjačka Banja, four senior world titles are four rounds from being decided, and Galina Strutinskaia has won all seven of her games. Anuj Shrivatri became India's 100th grandmaster. FIDE's survey of women in chess was reported in detail on November 9, and its retention numbers are the ones its authors call the hardest in the report.

Carlsen wins the Budapest blitz, and Group C is where he starts

The Total Chess World Championship Tour pilot began on November 10 at the Anantara New York Palace Hotel, with a nine-round blitz Swiss for all 24 players at 3 minutes plus 2 seconds. 1

Carlsen won it on 7/9. He beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Richard Rapport, Arjun Erigaisi, Anish Giri and Haik Martirosyan, drew four games, and was the only player to go through the day unbeaten. 2

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave finished second on 6½. He led outright after five rounds on 4½/5, and his only defeat of the day came against Arjun. 2

Levon Aronian took third on 6, beating Erigaisi with the black pieces in the final round after losing once himself, to Giri in round three. 2

Place	Player	Federation	Score
1	Magnus Carlsen	NOR	7/9
2	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	FRA	6½
3	Levon Aronian	USA	6
4=	Alireza Firouzja	FRA	5½
4=	Hans Niemann	USA	5½
4=	Arjun Erigaisi	IND	5½
4=	Richard Rapport	HUN	5½
4=	Fabiano Caruana	USA	5½

The blitz result carries into both stages that follow. Players level on points in a group are separated by Tuesday's blitz standings, and the same ranking sets the semifinal pairings inside each knockout bracket. 2

Carlsen's first place gives him the best available position if his group produces a tie. He expected tiebreaks to stay rare anyway: "It's extremely unlikely that anyone will finish tied when there are three points for a win." 3

Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Magnus Carlsen at the board in round one, with Total Chess Budapest 2026 branding on the table

Duda resigned to Carlsen in round one after 31.Kh1?? allowed 31...Rd3, a move Carlsen found with ten seconds left on his clock. Photo: Michal Walusza, via ChessBase.

The cost of a bad day here was rating, because the blitz was officially rated. Nodirbek Abdusattorov finished 22nd of 24 on 2½/9 and lost 41.5 points on the live blitz list, dropping from second to fifth. 2

Bibisara Assaubayeva lost her first eight games and drew Vaishali Rameshbabu in the last round to finish on ½/9. 2

Vaishali, the clear rating underdog of the 24, scored 4/9 with wins over Niemann and Wesley So. She gained 27.1 points and climbed 15 places to 21st on the women's live blitz list. 2

Vaishali Rameshbabu and Hans Niemann at the board, a crowd behind them

Vaishali against Niemann, who finished a strong day on 5½ despite losing this game. Photo: Michal Walusza, via ChessBase.

The four groups were drawn at the opening ceremony, with the four top-rated players split deliberately. Carlsen plays Group C, alongside Giri, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Abhimanyu Mishra and Martirosyan. 3

Group	Players
A	Alireza Firouzja, Jorden van Foreest, Andrew Hong, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Levon Aronian, Nodirbek Abdusattorov
B	Vladislav Artemiev, Richard Rapport, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Vincent Keymer, Fabiano Caruana, Liem Le
C	Anish Giri, Haik Martirosyan, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Abhimanyu Mishra, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Magnus Carlsen
D	Vaishali Rameshbabu, Hans Niemann, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Wesley So, Arjun Erigaisi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Group D holds both women in the field, and Arjun and Vachier-Lagrave meet again four days after Arjun's win over him cost Vachier-Lagrave the blitz lead. 3

Rounds one and two are on November 11 from 16:00 Sofia time. Each group is a double round-robin, two rounds a day through November 15, at 45 minutes plus 30 seconds per move; a win is worth three points and a draw one. 1

All 24 players keep playing after the groups. Group winners contest places 1 to 4 in the top bracket, runners-up places 5 to 8, down to the sixth-placed players, with semifinals on November 17 and 18 and finals on November 19 and 20. 1

The prize fund is $650,000, with $80,000 to the winner. The top three also earn a place in the first event of the 2027 Tour, as long as they have not qualified another way. 1

Vrnjačka Banja: one perfect score, and two leaders in the 50+

Seven of eleven rounds are done at the Hotel Zepter, and the four senior titles are decided on November 14. 4

Section	Leader	Score after 7
Open 50+	Pavel Kotsur (KAZ) and Kiril Georgiev (BUL)	6/7
Women 50+	Monica Calzetta Ruiz (ESP)	5½/7
Open 65+	Zurab Sturua (GEO)	6/7
Women 65+	Galina Strutinskaia (FID)	7/7

Kotsur and Georgiev are separated only by the first tiebreak, which puts Kotsur first. They were also level after round six, when both won. 4

Strutinskaia, playing under the FIDE flag, has won all seven games in the women's 65+. Elena Krasenkowa is second on 5½. 5

Calzetta Ruiz leads the women's 50+ on 5½, with Pia Cramling and Sopio Tereladze half a point behind on 5. 6

Sturua, the top seed at 2488, took the open 65+ lead on 6. 7

FIDE president Timur Turlov visited on November 9, met the municipality's president and the Serbian federation's president, and made the ceremonial first move in a women's 65+ game. He then greeted Nona Gaprindashvili and Cramling, both playing here. 8

Nearly 400 players from 65 countries are competing across the four sections, for a prize fund of €50,000. 8

Anuj Shrivatri becomes India's 100th grandmaster

On November 8, Anuj Shrivatri won the 7th ASEAN+ Open in Ozamiz City in the Philippines, and with it the grandmaster title. He is the 100th Indian to hold it. 9

He lost his first-round game, then scored seven points from the remaining eight for 7/9 and a performance rating of 2586. 10

Wins in the last two rounds took him half a point clear of Vietnam's Duc Hoa Nguyen, with Filipino FM Alekhine Nouri third on tiebreak. 9

The ASEAN+ Open is one of the few tournaments whose winner receives the GM title outright, without gathering norms or reaching a 2500 rating. Anuj came into it with one norm, from Budapest last November. 9

Viswanathan Anand became India's first grandmaster in 1988, and every one of the hundred has been produced since. FIDE's November list carries 97 Indians with the title; three more, Anuj among them, await formal confirmation. 9

India stands fourth by total grandmasters, behind Russia on 184, the United States on 115 and Germany on 103. On active grandmasters it is level with Russia and Germany on 74. 9

Anuj had been a software engineer with a German firm and quit to play full time. "It feels very good to become a GM and that too being 100th is also special," he told The Hindu. 9

Sagar Shah, who has covered most of that generation at ChessBase India, pointed at the age of the list: "every single GM of India is alive, which just goes to show how young this achievement is." 9

Anuj Shrivatri at a chessboard, a ChessBase India banner behind him

Anuj Shrivatri, who was 22 when the title was confirmed. Photo: ChessBase India, via ChessBase.

In Gmund, black won the top four boards and Sasikiran took the title

The 29th Bavarian Championship closed on November 8 at Gut Kaltenbrunn: nine rounds, 548 players. 11

Four players finished on 7½: Krishnan Sasikiran, Frederik Svane, Roven Vogel and FM Arun Daakshin. The title went to Sasikiran on the first tiebreak, the average rating of his opponents, 2440 against Svane's 2416. 11

Sasikiran, 45, beat Adrian Gschnitzer with black in the last round. He sacrificed a rook on f3 after Gschnitzer closed the centre on move 20, and finished with a 2675 performance and 17.8 rating points gained. 11

Black won all four games on the top boards. On board one Svane needed 92 moves to beat IM Eray Kilic, who would have secured his final GM norm with a draw. 11

Daakshin, 17 and rated 2341, beat German champion Leonardo Costa to reach the same score and fourth place. G.N. Gopal, who led after six rounds, won his last game and finished fifth on 7. 11

Klaudia Kulon was the highest-placed woman, on 6½. 11

Adrian Gschnitzer and Krishnan Sasikiran at the board in a bright hall

Gschnitzer, left, against Sasikiran in the last round; Sasikiran won with the black pieces and took the title on tiebreak. Photo: Sandra Schmidt, via ChessBase.

Chennai's new open produced nine norms in nine rounds

The inaugural Chola Chess Open ran in Chennai from October 30 to November 7, with 86 titled players, 34 of them grandmasters, and an average rating of 2412. 12

Pranesh M, 20 and second seed at 2674, won it on 7/9, half a point clear of five players. S. L. Narayanan took second on tiebreak, ahead of top seed Aravindh Chithambaram. 12

Pranesh played his first 18 moves of the last round without spending any time, then sacrificed the exchange to Iniyan Panneerselvam for the bishop pair and won with more than an hour on his clock. 12

The tournament produced one GM norm, seven IM norms and one WIM norm. Viresh Sharnarthi, 16 and seeded 68th at 2326, took his second GM norm in ten days by beating Leon Luke Mendonca (2629) in the last round. 12

Sarbartho Mani, 11 and seeded 71st at 2311, earned his first IM norm with wins over Dimitris Alexakis (2536) and Sayantan Das, finishing on 4½/9 and a 2451 performance. 12

FIDE's survey of women in chess, and the numbers inside it

FIDE's Commission for Women's Chess ran its first global survey between August 3 and September 14. After duplicates were removed it analysed 672 responses from 127 federations, and published the report on October 13. 13

Chess.com reported the findings on November 9. 14

Measure	All respondents	Adults	FIDE-titled women
Gender bias or sexism	63%	70%	81%
Sexual harassment or inappropriate behaviour	38%	46%	55%

Overall, 76% reported at least one of the eight forms of discrimination or harassment the survey measured. 38% reported online abuse or harassment, and 37% reported exclusion from coaching, teams, tournaments or leadership roles. 14

The retention figures are the ones the authors call the hardest in the report. 44% of respondents had considered stepping away from chess; among those aged 18 to 24 the figure was 64%, and among holders of women's FIDE titles 65%. 14

Among respondents who reported gender bias, 56% had considered leaving, against 23% of those who had not. With age, title, region and involvement accounted for, the report puts the odds at roughly three times. 14

Cost and time led the barriers: 66% selected costs such as travel, coaching and entry fees, and 48% selected time pressures from school, work or family. 84% described the barriers they faced as major or moderate. 14

Asked what would most improve participation in their region, respondents chose financial support (65%), more local tournaments (60%), better coaching access (52%) and more women in leadership (46%). 14

Emilia Castelao, president of the Women in Chess Foundation, said the number did not surprise her, and asked FIDE and its president to establish an international SafePlay policy that federations can adopt. 14

The sample was voluntary, so the findings describe respondents rather than all women in chess. It skews toward active and titled players and toward federations that promoted the questionnaire, and it misses women who have already left the game. 14

Also this window

Bullet Brawl, November 7. Hikaru Nakamura won his 73rd title with 165 points, 12 clear of Ediz Gurel's 153 and 24 clear of Parham Maghsoodloo's 141, in a 225-player arena. Gurel, 17, had led early with 26.5/30 in the first hour. The next edition is November 14. 15
Titled Tuesday, November 10. Sina Movahed beat Denis Lazavik on tiebreak after both scored 9½, his fourth Titled Tuesday win of the year and level with Jan-Krzysztof Duda at the top. Nakamura finished seventh on 9 and still leads the Champions Chess Tour standings on 38, with Movahed second on 30. Margarita Potapova won the women's prize. 16
The 100-0 Project, November 7. Josh Smith, a 49-year-old amateur from Arizona, won game 29 of 100 against Daniil Dubov, which ended the sweep. Dubov won the other 99 and collected $10,000 instead of the $20,000 bonus. Season 2 runs from December to March, with Levon Aronian as the final opponent. 17
Tata Steel 2027. The Masters and Challengers fields for January 15 to 31 in Wijk aan Zee are out. Nodirbek Abdusattorov defends, Javokhir Sindarov plays, and Andy Woodward, 16, moves up as the 2026 Challengers winner. Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, 15, Vincent Keymer, Firouzja, Aronian, Giri, Jorden van Foreest, Niemann, Frederik Svane, Nihal Sarin and Amin Tabatabaei complete a Masters field with one place still open. 18
Nakamura and Chess.com. Nakamura renewed with Chess.com on November 10, extending a partnership the company describes as longstanding. 19
Sahel Chess Festival. Bator Sambuev won the second edition in Monastir, unbeaten on 8/9 in the top section, ahead of Wafa Hamed and Valerio Carnicelli. More than 300 players took part across five classical tournaments, Margarita Potapova earned a WGM norm, and the 2027 edition moves to Sousse. 20
Tal at 90. November 9 was the 90th anniversary of Mikhail Tal's birth. He became the youngest world champion in history in 1960, at 23. 21

What to watch next

Date (Europe/Sofia)	Event and location	Checkpoint
November 11–15	Total Chess group stage, Budapest	Two rounds a day at 45+30; rounds one and two on November 11 from 16:00. 1
November 10–14	Salamanca Chess Festival, Salamanca	Six-player rapid round-robin with Bodhana Sivanandan, Paco Vallejo, Loek van Wely and Elisabeth Paehtz. 22
November 12–13	FIDE "Chess in Education" conference, Almaty	At Narxoz University. 23
November 14	World Senior Championship, Vrnjačka Banja	Final round; four titles decided. 4
November 14	Bullet Brawl, online	First edition since Nakamura's 73rd title, from 19:00 Sofia time. 15
November 17–20	Total Chess knockout stage, Budapest	Semifinals November 17–18, finals November 19–20. 1
November 22 – December 13	World Championship match, Cologny, Geneva	Gukesh Dommaraju defends against Javokhir Sindarov; the first classical game is November 24. 24
November 24 – December 7	XTX London Chess Classic, London	Nodirbek Abdusattorov defends, chasing the first back-to-back titles since Carlsen in 2010. 25
November 27 – December 7	5th President Cup, Tashkent	$100,000 prize fund; registration closes November 13. 26
December 26–30	World Rapid and Blitz Championships, Istanbul	Four titles; Carlsen defends both open championships. 27