Giri, Indjic, Dai Lead Sharjah Masters, Oro Hunts 1st GM Norm
GM Anish Giri leads the 2025 Sharjah Masters with four points from five rounds, together with GMs Aleksandar Indjic and Dai Changren. The group just half a point behind includes 2700 stars GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Parham Maghsoodloo, but also teenagers such as GMs Ivan Zemlyanskii and Andy Woodward, while 11-year-old Faustino Oro, on 3/5, is currently on course to beat GM Gukesh Dommaraju's record as the youngest player ever to score a GM norm.
Round six starts Thursday, May 22, at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CEST / 4:30 p.m. IST.
Sharjah Masters Standings After Round 5 (Top 30)
| Rank | Seed | Title | Name | FED | Rating | Points | Tiebreak |
| 1 | 52 | GM | Dai, Changren | 2531 | 4 | 16 | |
| 2 | 2 | GM | Giri, Anish | 2738 | 4 | 15.5 | |
| 3 | 8 | GM | Indjic, Aleksandar | 2637 | 4 | 13.5 | |
| 4 | 63 | GM | Visakh, N R | 2507 | 3.5 | 17.5 | |
| 5 | 3 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | 2706 | 3.5 | 15 | |
| 6 | 44 | GM | Aditya, Mittal | 2547 | 3.5 | 15 | |
| 7 | 29 | GM | Amar, Elham | 2569 | 3.5 | 14.5 | |
| 8 | 17 | GM | Theodorou, Nikolas | 2611 | 3.5 | 14 | |
| 9 | 24 | GM | Kozak, Adam | 2578 | 3.5 | 14 | |
| 10 | 45 | GM | Woodward, Andy | 2547 | 3.5 | 14 | |
| 11 | 6 | GM | Sargsyan, Shant | 2666 | 3.5 | 13.5 | |
| 12 | 13 | GM | Ivic, Velimir | 2630 | 3.5 | 13.5 | |
| 13 | 1 | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 2771 | 3.5 | 13 | |
| 14 | 26 | GM | Iniyan, Pa | 2573 | 3.5 | 13 | |
| 15 | 34 | GM | Zemlyanskii, Ivan | 2563 | 3.5 | 12 | |
| 16 | 16 | GM | Daneshvar, Bardiya | 2621 | 3.5 | 11.5 | |
| 17 | 36 | GM | Vetokhin, Savva | 2558 | 3 | 15 | |
| 18 | 5 | GM | Tabatabaei, M. Amin | 2670 | 3 | 14.5 | |
| 19 | 21 | GM | Paravyan, David | 2596 | 3 | 14.5 | |
| 20 | 11 | GM | Salem, A.R. Saleh | 2631 | 3 | 13.5 | |
| 21 | 31 | GM | Karthik, Venkataraman | 2565 | 3 | 13.5 | |
| 22 | 38 | GM | Grebnev, Aleksey | 2556 | 3 | 13.5 | |
| 23 | 68 | GM | Xiao, Tong(Qd) | 2493 | 3 | 13.5 | |
| 24 | 80 | GM | Nigmatov, Ortik | 2457 | 3 | 13.5 | |
| 25 | 81 | IM | Oro, Faustino | 2454 | 3 | 13.5 | |
| 26 | 69 | IM | Mamedov, Edgar | 2492 | 3 | 13 | |
| 27 | 20 | GM | Azarov, Sergei | 2596 | 3 | 11.5 | |
| 28 | 76 | GM | Siddharth, Jagadeesh | 2472 | 3 | 11.5 | |
| 29 | 22 | GM | Pichot, Alan | 2587 | 3 | 10.5 | |
| 30 | 62 | IM | Malek, Jan | 2511 | 3 | 9.5 |
The eighth edition of the Sharjah Masters is a nine-round Swiss tournament running May 17-25 in the Sharjah Chess Club in the United Arab Emirates. The event, with a $15,000 top prize, is an open tournament, but the A Group, with 82 players, is for players rated 2500 and above (or invited exceptions), so that everyone in the event is essentially grandmaster strength.
The top seed is world number-six Nodirbek Abdusattorov, whose three draws and two wins have been a mediocre start that could have been much worse—he was losing his first game against S P Sethuraman.
Abdusattorov is one player juggling playing in Sharjah with the 2025 Chess.com Classic. For instance, his 18-move draw with GM Adam Kozak in round five may have been influenced by knowing he was scheduled to play GM Magnus Carlsen in the Winners Semifinals a few hours later (Carlsen won 3-1, but Abdusattorov is still alive in the Losers Bracket).
A big incentive for the top players in Sharjah is the 20.94 FIDE Circuit points on offer for clear first place, a tally that would launch Abdusattorov, Giri, or Maghsoodloo into third place behind GMs Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Ding Liren on the FIDE Circuit Leaderboard, while 18-year-old Iranian GM Bardiya Daneshvar could potentially move into second.
So far the one favorite in the leading pack is world number-18 Giri, who got off to a perfect start against GM Rinat Jumabayev. Giri bamboozled his Kazakh opponent in the opening, but had let the advantage slip until Jumabayev went astray with two seconds on his clock. 39...h4! would have drawn, but 39...Rxe4? ran into a crunching winning move.
Giri also defeated 18-year-old GM Pranav Anand and then 14-year-old GM Zemlyanskii, breaking through in style in the latter game to create unstoppable passed pawns.
Zemlyanskii bounced back in round five to defeat 18-year-old GM Emin Ohanyan in 31 moves with an accuracy score of 99.5 and is performing at over a 2750 level, while Giri is joined in the lead by two players.
One is Serbian 2024 European Chess Champion Indjic, who survived a scare in the first game to power to 3.5/4. His most dramatic win came against GM Mihail Nikitenko in round four, with Indjic saying afterward:
Extremely complicated game and overall I feel ecstatic that I succeeded in winning such an important game. Also for me it’s important as the Modern Benoni is my favorite opening, so I’m always happy when I increase the collection of interesting victories there.
Indjic admitted the opening had gone wrong, but he found a great resource to turn the tables, and even after missing another key move he eventually managed to create a checkmating net against his opponent's king and win on move 75.
The other leader is more of a surprise, with 26-year-old Chinese GM Dai having a peak rating of 2536, but playing at an almost 2900 level after three big wins against top opposition.
His biggest win came against fifth seed GM Amin Tabatabaei, whose 26...Bxc3?, instead of simply taking the knight on d7, was punished in brutal fashion. One more mistake six moves later and there was no way back.
The battle for first place will intensify in round six, with Indjic taking on Dai, while Maghsoodloo has White against Giri.
There's plenty more to look out for, however. We've already flagged up a number of young players, with one standout performance coming from 15-year-old US GM Woodward, whose wins against GMs Alexandr Predke and Leon Luke Mendonca must be among the most impressive of his young career. Most eyes, however, are on 11-year-old Oro, who can beat Gukesh's record as the youngest player ever to score a GM norm by over three months.
Here are Oro's results so far.
The Argentinian needs to finish with a 2600+ performance and is currently on track with a 2650-level, though it hasn't been easy. He pulled off an incredible escape against GM Vahap Sanal in the very first round, then the 86-move win against GM Mahammad Muradli in round two was an emotional rollercoaster.
There's no time added after the original 90 minutes in Sharjah, so that many of the games have been decided in permanent time trouble with only the 30-second increment per move. Oro got down to one second on his clock on moves 40 and 43, but on move 53 spotted a winning trick. It wasn't so easy, however, since Muradli could have escaped as late as move 80!
Two points out of four may suffice for Oro in the following rounds, though that's of course much easier said than done against such strong opposition.
The event in Sharjah is also a great chance for the strongest female players, with IM Bibisara Assaubayeva currently on 2.5/5 and within touching distance of scoring a final GM norm to earn the grandmaster title.
On 2/5, after four draws and one loss, are GM Zhu Jiner and IM Divya Deshmukh, with a fourth draw in a row having taken Zhu up to the women's world number-three spot.
It was a rollercoaster, but Zhu Jiner's 4th draw in Sharjah has taken her up to World no. 3 on the Women's @2700chess live rating list! https://t.co/riQc9H0Cvs pic.twitter.com/Ywfk3SR2pL
— chess24 (@chess24com) May 20, 2025
A loss to Paravyan knocked her down, but so far the Chinese 22-year-old has performed well on the back of winning the FIDE Women's Grand Prix series.
With four rounds to go, anything can still happen!
The A group of the 2025 Sharjah Masters is a nine-round Swiss for players rated 2500 and higher that is taking place May 17-25 in the Sharjah Chess Club, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The time control is 90 minutes for all moves, with a 30-second increment from move one. The overall prize fund is over $73,000, with $15,000 for first place in the A group.
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.
