 "Nihal Sarin's surprise lead at FIDE Grand Swiss: The dark horse among the young Indian chess stars")
Nihal Sarin has quietly turned into the biggest Indian star at the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand. The 21-year-old Indian grandmaster recently defeated Iranian GM Parham Maghsoodloo in round seven and moved into the joint lead of the tournament along with Germany’s Matthias Bluebaum.
Playing with white pieces, Nihal slowly built pressure on Maghsoodloo, who was unbeaten till then. The former World Junior Chess Champion made an error and Nihal finished the game beautifully. Earlier in round six, Nihal had crushed Polish GM Szymon Gumularz in just 22 moves.
Nihal outperforms top-ranked Indian stars
With this form and 5.5 points to his name, Nihal now looks like the unexpected dark horse among India’s biggest of chess names at the tournament. This includes the current World Champion D Gukesh, who has looked totally out of touch in Samarkand and have had mixed results.
After two wins and two draws in the first four rounds, he suffered three back-to-back defeats against Abhimanyu Mishra, Nikolas Theodorou, and Ediz Gurel. The loss to Mishra was historic as the 16-year-old American became the youngest ever to beat a reigning world champion in classical chess.
Gukesh is all but out of contention in Samarkand and also faces the risk of losing his spot in the top 10 of the FIDE rankings. He will face compatriot Divya Deshmukh in round eight. It is a lighter pairing for Gukesh, where a win might help him recover some lost confidence, but nothing more because he has just 3 points to his name.
World No. 5 Arjun Erigaisi started steadily with two draws and as many wins against Haik Martirosyan and Anton Demchenko. He added another strong victory over Nikita Vitiugov in round five, keeping himself near the top. However, draws against Maghsoodloo and a costly loss to Bluebaum in round seven left him at 4.5 points. He still has time to bounce back as he faces Shant Sargsyan in next round.
Praggnanandhaa has had a quiet but steady run. He started with solid wins over Zemlyanskii, Gelfand, and Rodshtein, mixed with draws against Xiong, Mishra, Pranav V, and Mamedov. His only setback came against Bluebaum in round five, but he sits on 4.5 points and remains within striking distance. Pragg will need a big result to close the gap on the leaders as he faces Richard Rapport in round eight.
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