Giri Wins 2025 Sharjah Masters, Assaubayeva Earns GM Title
GM Anish Giri has won the 2025 Sharjah Masters after defeating GM Aditya Mittal in 91 moves in the final round to finish on 7/9. GMs Aleksandar Indjic and Nodirbek Abdusattorov finished half a point behind, while the other big winner of the event is Bibisara Assaubayeva, who survived two crazy final draws to become only the 43rd woman to earn the grandmaster title. IM Faustino Oro's bid to become the youngest player ever to earn a grandmaster norm fell just short, after the 11-year-old lost his final two games.
- Anish Giri Is Back!
- Indjic, Abdusattorov Complete Podium
- Assaubayeva Clinches GM Title, Oro Misses Out
Sharjah Masters Final Standings (Top 33)
| Rank | Seed | Title | Name | FED | Rating | Score | TB | TB2 |
| 1 | 2 | GM | Giri, Anish | 2738 | 7 | 44.5 | 40 | |
| 2 | 8 | GM | Indjic, Aleksandar | 2637 | 6.5 | 43.5 | 40 | |
| 3 | 1 | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 2771 | 6.5 | 42 | 38 | |
| 4 | 13 | GM | Ivic, Velimir | 2630 | 6 | 43.5 | 39 | |
| 5 | 6 | GM | Sargsyan, Shant | 2666 | 6 | 43 | 39 | |
| 6 | 5 | GM | Tabatabaei, M. Amin | 2670 | 6 | 41.5 | 37.5 | |
| 7 | 17 | GM | Theodorou, Nikolas | 2611 | 6 | 41 | 37.5 | |
| 8 | 29 | GM | Amar, Elham | 2569 | 6 | 41 | 37 | |
| 9 | 18 | GM | Muradli, Mahammad | 2603 | 6 | 36 | 32 | |
| 10 | 44 | GM | Aditya, Mittal | 2547 | 5.5 | 46 | 41.5 | |
| 11 | 52 | GM | Dai, Changren | 2531 | 5.5 | 45 | 40.5 | |
| 12 | 63 | GM | Visakh, N R | 2507 | 5.5 | 44.5 | 40 | |
| 13 | 36 | GM | Vetokhin, Savva | 2558 | 5.5 | 43.5 | 39.5 | |
| 14 | 45 | GM | Woodward, Andy | 2547 | 5.5 | 43.5 | 38.5 | |
| 15 | 16 | GM | Daneshvar, Bardiya | 2621 | 5.5 | 42 | 38 | |
| 16 | 11 | GM | Salem, A.R. Saleh | 2631 | 5.5 | 41.5 | 38 | |
| 17 | 39 | GM | Pranav, Anand | 2555 | 5.5 | 41 | 37.5 | |
| 18 | 4 | GM | Sevian, Samuel | 2694 | 5.5 | 40.5 | 36 | |
| 19 | 21 | GM | Paravyan, David | 2596 | 5.5 | 38.5 | 35 | |
| 20 | 22 | GM | Pichot, Alan | 2587 | 5.5 | 38 | 34.5 | |
| 21 | 41 | GM | Gavrilescu, David | 2554 | 5.5 | 35 | 31.5 | |
| 22 | 24 | GM | Kozak, Adam | 2578 | 5 | 45 | 40 | |
| 23 | 34 | GM | Zemlyanskii, Ivan | 2563 | 5 | 42.5 | 39.5 | |
| 24 | 69 | IM | Mamedov, Edgar | 2492 | 5 | 40.5 | 36.5 | |
| 25 | 76 | GM | Siddharth, Jagadeesh | 2472 | 5 | 39.5 | 35,5 | |
| 26 | 37 | GM | Bharath, Subramaniyam H | 2556 | 5 | 38 | 34.5 | |
| 27 | 14 | GM | Mendonca, Leon Luke | 2630 | 5 | 38 | 34 | |
| 28 | 66 | IM | Assaubayeva, Bibisara | 2494 | 5 | 37.5 | 34.5 | |
| 29 | 43 | GM | Jumabayev, Rinat | 2551 | 5 | 36 | 32.5 | |
| 30 | 57 | GM | Movahed, Sina | 2518 | 5 | 36 | 32 | |
| 31 | 19 | GM | Tin, Jingyao | 2601 | 5 | 34.5 | 31.5 | |
| 32 | 20 | GM | Azarov, Sergei | 2596 | 5 | 34.5 | 31 | |
| 33 | 73 | IM | Pang, Tao | 2485 | 5 | 34 | 30 |
Anish Giri Is Back!
Dutch star Giri first entered the world top-10 as a 20-year-old in October 2014, and for the next decade was always there or thereabouts, until last year, when he slipped as low as world number-23. He was one of a number of players who seemed as though he might be getting swept away by the new generation of stars, but results such as the one he's just posted in Sharjah suggest he's not going to give up the fight just yet!
The result earned Giri $15,000 for sole first place, 20.94 FIDE Circuit points, taking him up to third place behind GMs Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Ding Liren in the race for a 2026 FIDE Candidates spot, and 10.3 rating points, which has seen him move back up to world number-12 on the live rating list.
Won Sharjah Masters.🏆
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) May 25, 2025
Who would have thought.
We last checked in with the tournament after round five, when Giri was sharing the lead with Indjic and GM Dai Changren.
In round six Indjic beat Dai, but Giri kept pace with a spectacular win over the always-explosive GM Parham Maghsoodloo. The Iranian star went for a tempting exchange sacrifice, but 31.Nd6?, played with around three minutes on his clock, proved to be a losing move. The reply 31...Be5! not only hit the knight but removed the h2 escape square from the white king, setting up the crunching blow 32...Qxa6!!.
A solid draw with top-seed Abdusattorov was then followed by a four-move draw against GM Velimir Ivic, who would go on to finish fourth.
The Sharjah Masters is unusual in having no limits on draws, with Giri quipping that it was, "a very deep strategic decision." He explained why he didn't wait: "I wanted to offer it early to have it clear, because if he wants to play for a win I will have that information available to me and try to use that to my advantage."
The draw allowed Abdusattorov to catch up going into the final round, but in the end it was hard to argue with results. An extremely quiet opening against Aditya ultimately worked to perfection, with Abdusattorov making a draw and Giri emerging with a position where he was a pawn up and could push for clear tournament victory at no risk.
His Indian opponent could have grabbed the extra pawn late in the game, but when he didn't he soon stumbled into a lost position, and Giri wrapped up a famous win.
That saw him finish half a point clear of two players.
Indjic, Abdusattorov Complete Podium
Although he himself only finished 16th, local GM Saleh Salem had a huge impact on the final standings at the top after a dramatic few rounds. He warmed up in round six with a spectacular, if not too difficult to see, checkmating attack against 18-year-old GM Aleksey Grebnev. 34...Qa1+! forced resignation.
Then in round seven Salem took down co-leader Indjic in a game full of spectacular moves by both sides. Indjic was completely winning on move 45, then three moves later 48...Qxh3!! was a brilliant sacrifice simply to hold equality.
Three moves later it was Salem who found the perhaps even more remarkable 51.Qf2!! to hold the balance himself. In the end a mistake by Indjic on move 61 saw the Serbian 2024 European Champion fall to his only defeat of the event.
Indjic would recover from that blow to turn the tables and beat 18-year-old Iranian GM Bardiya Daneshvar in the final round to clinch second place and $10,000, while Abdusattorov took $7,000 and third.
The Uzbek star was finally able to stop focussing on playing games in under four hours to be able to play in the Chess.com Classic and picked up two wins in the final four rounds, one against GM Iniyan P, and the other against—you guessed it—Salem.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov beats Salem Saleh to catch Anish Giri in the lead before tomorrow's final round of the Sharjah Masters! https://t.co/lxJy465swJ pic.twitter.com/B3oubKkWep
— chess24 (@chess24com) May 24, 2025
"The game was extremely complicated and I’d happy that I managed to trick him at the end," said Abdusattorov, with everything turning on 53...Nxf2? (Abdusattorov pointed out 53...Ndf6! and "the white position is very dangerous"), which ran into a powerful piece sacrifice.
Abdusattorov had a tough pairing with Black against GM Amin Tabatabaei in the final round and never got winning chances before making a draw, so had to settle for third place, half a point behind Giri and half a point ahead of the six-player pack on 6/9: GMs Ivic, Shant Sargsyan, Tabatabaei, Nikolas Theodorou, Elham Amar, and Mahammad Muradli.
Assaubayeva Clinches GM Title, Oro Misses Out
Much of the excitement in Sharjah centered around prodigies and players fighting for norms, but the event was tough and the margins slim. 11-year-old Oro was on course to beat GM Gukesh Dommaraju's record and become the youngest player in history to score a grandmaster norm as late as round seven, when he made an 11-move draw with Black against Vietnamese GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son.
Two draws or one win would then be enough for the norm, and White against 14-year-old prodigy Ivan Zemlyanskii in round eight looked like a chance. Instead, however, Oro was surprised in the opening and slumped to a 22-move loss.
That meant the Argentinian star needed to win on demand with Black in the final round against Indian GM Luke Leon Mendonca, which was a very tough ask. Mendonca could have sacrificed an exchange on f6 on a couple of occasions, while 26...Ncd5! was a chance for Oro to gain his best position of the game. Instead he went for 26...Ne6? and the exchange sac finally came with crushing power!
So it was a very tough finish for the youngster, but the experience will only make him stronger and grandmaster norms and the title won't be long in coming!
There were fine performances for teenagers such as 15-year-old GM Andy Woodward and 16-year-old GM Savva Vetokhin, who both scored 5.5/9, but the biggest story was 21-year-old Assaubayeva finally clinching the grandmaster title after a number of near misses.
She needed, and made, two draws in the final two rounds, but only after incredible twists and turns. GM Bai Jinshi found a brilliant idea in the penultimate round, sacrificing a knight to generate a passed pawn.
A remarkable move by Bai Jinshi — it's worth a knight to get a passed b-pawn with Black's pieces undeveloped (the black king has already moved, so castling isn't an option): https://t.co/gLPuL6fKEE pic.twitter.com/AMXlGRh4et
— chess24 (@chess24com) May 24, 2025
The position was initially equal after the sacrifice, but Assaubayeva lost her way in the complications and eventually had to pull off a great escape—only a mistake by Bai on move 70 allowed a fortress in a bishop endgame so that Assaubayeva went into the last round needing "only" a draw.
She faced her Kazakh compatriot GM Rinat Jumabayev, who adopted a slow Hedgehog strategy that worked to perfection when a provocative h-pawn push was followed by 21...Bc7!. Jumabayev took control and was close to winning on multiple occasions, but once again Assaubayeva held her own in time trouble and ultimately made a 92-move draw to clinch her third and final grandmaster norm.
That made Assaubayeva only the 43rd woman to earn the full grandmaster title, and the last since GM Vaishali Rameshbabu clinched the title in December 2023. Assaubayeva has broken through the required 2500 barrier, and is now Women's world number-10 on the live rating list.
She finished the Sharjah Masters in 28th place on 5/9, with her rival GM Zhu Jiner ultimately finishing a full point back after a tournament in which she'd briefly taken the Women's world number-three spot.
A number of the Sharjah players, including Indjic, will be moving straight from Sharjah to neighboring Dubai to play the 2025 Dubai Open that starts Tuesday, while most of the eyes of the chess world will be on Norway Chess 2025 this Monday, with GMs Magnus Carlsen and Gukesh Dommaraju clashing in round one!
The A group of the 2025 Sharjah Masters was a nine-round Swiss for players rated 2500 and higher that took place May 17-25 in the Sharjah Chess Club, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The time control was 90 minutes for all moves, with a 30-second increment from move one. The overall prize fund was over $73,000, with $15,000 for first place in the A group.
Previous coverage:
Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
