Total Chess 2026: Martirosyan beats Carlsen as Vaishali wins in Budapest

Haik Martirosyan defeated Magnus Carlsen for the first time at the Total Chess World Championship Tour pilot in Budapest, Sportstar reported. The Armenian Grandmaster won with White on day three of the Fast Classic stage and moved into the outright Group C lead. Martirosyan said beating your chess idol is a special feeling, according to ChessBase India.

Martirosyan handed Carlsen his first loss of the tournament in a 41-move encounter. By move 21 Carlsen had six minutes remaining on the clock while Martirosyan had almost 20 minutes.

Under time pressure Carlsen made a series of mistakes with his queen that allowed Martirosyan to convert his advantage into victory. The Armenian then held Carlsen to a draw in their return encounter.

Having opened the group stage with four consecutive draws, Carlsen remained without a victory after six games, with five points to Martirosyan’s 10.

Martirosyan’s four points from their two encounters put him one ahead of Anish Giri, who drew his opening game against Ian Nepomniachtchi before winning the return with White after a long battle. Nepomniachtchi had seven points, alongside Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who drew both games against Abhimanyu Mishra.

The American finished the day on five points.

R. Vaishali secured her first Fast Classic win of the tournament, recovering from a defeat against Bibisara Assaubayeva to win their second meeting. Assaubayeva had struck first with White, but Vaishali responded with an attacking victory when the colours were reversed.

The split results took the Indian to four points and the Kazakh to eight. R. Praggnanandhaa drew both games against Vladislav Artemiev in Group B, their first encounter lasting 89 moves. Praggnanandhaa had four points and Artemiev five.

Fabiano Caruana extended his unbeaten run, defeating Vincent Keymer with Black after gaining an endgame advantage and drawing the return. His four wins and two draws yielded fourteen points, four clear of Liem Le, who drew twice against Richard Rapport. Keymer had four points and Rapport five.

Arjun Erigaisi also gained ground with a victory and a draw against Wesley So. Arjun came under pressure against So in their first encounter but turned the game around to win with Black.

A draw in the return lifted him to nine points, level with Hans Niemann and three behind group leader Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The Frenchman drew his first game against Niemann before building sustained pressure with White to win the second and reach twelve points. So had four.

In Group A, Andrew Hong claimed his first Fast Classic victory by beating leader Alireza Firouzja with White. Firouzja answered with a White win in the return to retain the lead on eleven points, while Hong reached six.

Jan-Krzysztof Duda remained second on nine after two draws against Levon Aronian, who had seven. Jorden van Foreest beat Nodirbek Abdusattorov before drawing their second game, taking them to eight and five points respectively.

The day produced 10 decisive results from 24 games, with three points awarded for a win and one for a draw. Games seven and eight follow on Saturday, leaving each player with four games to complete the group stage.

Related on Apex Sports News

• Vaishali stuns So and Niemann as Carlsen wins Total Chess Blitz opener

• Total Chess World Championship: Mishra holds Carlsen, Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali lose twice

• Praggnanandhaa and Erigaisi draw twice at Total Chess Pilot in Budapest

Sources

• Sportstar

• chessbase.in