The 4th day of the Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot in Budapest has concluded. Alireza Firouzja, Fabiano Caruana, Haik Martirosyan, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave lead groups A, B, C, and D respectively.

Fabiano Caruana defeated Vincent Keymer 1 time and drew with him once. Caruana gained +4.4 points and reached a rating of 2800.0. Magnus Carlsen lost to Haik Martirosyan once and drew with him 1 time. Carlsen dropped to a rating of 2807.2. The last time Magnus was below 2810 was in 2010.

2609-rated Andrew Z Hong defeated Alireza Firouzja once. CEO of FIDE Enterprises Emil Sutovsky commented on Andrew’s and Haik’s performances:

Emil Sutovsky

Emil Sutovsky

CEO of FIDE Enterprises

“Two of the major upsets today are Martirosyan defeating Magnus and Hong beating Alireza. Not sure if you know how Haik and Andrew got into the event at all. Here is the answer.

When planning the event, we allocated spots via FIDE Open Circuit, having in mind that there are many capable players, who simply don’t have enough opportunities to play the top guys.

Hence three spots were reserved for those who mostly play in Open tournaments. Both of today’s heroes plus Abhimanyu Mishra qualified this way.

Happy to see our policy justifying itself!”

The current Group A standings are:

Place Player Score TB
1. 🇫🇷 GM Alireza Firouzja 11 21.0
2. 🇵🇱 GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda 9 13.0
3. 🇳🇱 GM Jorden van Foreest 8 2.0
4. 🇺🇸 GM Levon Aronian 7 22.0
5. 🇺🇸 GM Andrew Z Hong 6 4.0
6. 🇺🇿 GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov 5 3.0

Group B:

Place Player Score TB
1. 🇺🇸 GM Fabiano Caruana 14 17.0
2. 🇻🇳 GM Liem Le 10 6.0
3. 🇭🇺 GM Richard Rapport 5 18.0
4. 🇷🇺 GM Vladislav Artemiev 5 9.0
5. 🇩🇪 GM Vincent Keymer 4 14.0
6. 🇮🇳 GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu 4 11.0

Group C:

Place Player Score TB
1. 🇦🇲 GM Haik Martirosyan 10 12.0
2. 🇳🇱 GM Anish Giri 9 15.0
3. 🇷🇺 GM Ian Nepomniachtchi 7 16.0
4. 🇦🇿 GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 7 5.0
5. 🇳🇴 GM Magnus Carlsen 5 24.0
6. 🇺🇸 GM Abhimanyu Mishra 5 7.0

Group D:

Place Player Score TB
1. 🇫🇷 GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 12 23.0
2. 🇺🇸 GM Hans Moke Niemann 9 20.0
3. 🇮🇳 GM Arjun Erigaisi 9 19.0
4. 🇰🇿 GM Bibisara Assaubayeva 8 1.0
5. 🇺🇸 GM Wesley So 4 10.0
6. 🇮🇳 GM Vaishali Rameshbabu 4 8.0

The event features a 5-day Group stage and a 4-day Knockout. In the Group stage, each player will play everyone else twice. The time control for every match is the Fast Classic 45+30. The top scorer from each group advances to the Knockout.

The Knockout will last 4 days. The Semifinals will be played in the first 2 days. The third-place match and the Final will take place on the last 2 days. The Knockout features 3 formats for every match. Players will play 4 Blitz 3+2 games, then 2 Rapid 15+10 games, and will finish with 1 Fast Classic 45+30 game.

The Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot takes place from November 10 to 20, at the Anantara New York Palace Hotel in Budapest, Hungary. The tournament serves as the pilot event for the new Total Chess World Championship Tour. The top 2 players from the overall tour standings will qualify for the 2028 Candidates Tournament.

Credit: Michal Walusza / FIDE