Top seed GM Alireza Firouzja profited from a big blunder by GM Luke McShane to score a win with the black pieces in round 2 of the London Chess Classic’s Elite Tournament. Firouzja now shares the lead with GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who used 34(!) moves of preparation to beat GM Abhimanyu Mishra, and with GM Nikolas Theodorou. The Greek GM played a good attacking game vs. GM Gawain Maroroa Jones, who allowed checkmate on the board.
GM Sam Shankland missed a good chance to beat GM Pavel Eljanov and had to be satisfied with a draw, the same result that was seen in GM Michael Adams vs. GM Nikita Vitiugov.
The third round starts Friday, November 28, at 11:00 a.m. ET / 17:00 CET / 9:30 p.m. IST.
Round 2 Standings
On Thursday, the players joined other participants of the festival in the Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal football club. It is a special location for a chess tournament and when asked about it, Firouzja appeared rather thrilled about it, saying: “It’s actually amazing to have this kind of stadium to play in. I think it’s very underrated what is happening here! I think more people should come and watch.”
Abdusattorov-Mishra
We got a glimpse of what preparation looks like in the year 2025 among top grandmasters of a young age when Mishra said the other day that he had prepared for six hours. Thursday saw another striking example, as it turned out that Abdusattorov had prepared his game against the same Mishra for 34 moves, all the way into a winning endgame.
Even Firouzja was impressed: “It’s insane. I don’t know how these guys do it.”
Up till then, Abdusattorov had only spent about 19 minutes on the clock double-checking things, while Mishra had used an hour and 40 minutes by then. Unfortunately for him, the position was already hopeless.
“It’s very easy to misjudge this endgame from a human perspective. That’s how we tend to think as humans, but the engine is merciless,” said Abdusattorov.
That’s how we tend to think as humans, but the engine is merciless.
—Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Afterward, Abdusattorov casually noted that he had not only looked at Mishra’s Archangelsk Ruy Lopez, but also his Najdorf…
McShane-Firouzja
Having drawn number one at the drawing of lots, it was McShane who got to play another white game. This time he faced a Najdorf, and one where Black provoked him a bit to push his f- and g-pawns up the board early.
“I think I had to take a risk,” said Firouzja, who demonstrated at the board and explained afterward that his early …Be6 was perfectly playable. That bishop got pushed to d7 by White’s f4-f5, but it is OK for Black these days, whereas it had been considered inaccurate for a long time.
The main story of this game, however, was McShane’s terrible blunder on move 21. “Luke played really good but he just blundered,” said Firouzja. “It’s so lucky to win such a game but it happens from time to time.”
It’s so lucky to win such a game but it happens from time to time.
—Alireza Firouzja
It was likely one of those cases where McShane accidentally played the second move of the line he had calculated, instead of the first.
Theodorou-Maroroa Jones
Many fans might have been surprised on the very first move of this game, and they shared that surprise with Theodorou. The Greek GM said he had expected the King’s Indian, in which Maroroa Jones is an expert, having written an excellent Chessable course on it. But at this level, you cannot be too predictable.
The English GM chose a Queen’s Gambit Decline with an early …a6, which wasn’t completely for the first time. “I saw that he had some games with this …a6 line but I didn’t take it too seriously before the game,” said Theodorou.
The opening wasn’t really the issue. Black’s pawn pushes on the kingside, which are seen more and more these days in different openings, somehow didn’t work here. The black king was never safe in this game.
Shankland-Eljanov
The first game to finish in this round was the draw between Shankland and Eljanov. It was interesting to see the difference of opinion about the middlegame: while Eljanov felt he should be fine strategically, Shankland had the strong feeling he was much better.
Shankland: “I think I should have been much better somewhere but I am not sure where.”
Elljanov: “What happened is very much double-edged but I didn’t see how to improve for White. It’s not an advantage or no advantage, it’s the question of concrete stuff.”
Then, when commentator GM David Howell switched on the engine, it turned out that Shankland’s feeling was correct: He had missed a key tactic that allowed Black to equalize from a problematic position.
Having escaped the other day, the American GM wasn’t too disappointed, saying: “One point out of two is fair enough, we’re just warming up!”
He noted that he had only been to Scotland a few times, but not to England yet.
“I’m delighted to be here now, it’s a lovely country. I don’t know why we had this big fight with you all in the Revolutionary War. It’s nice here, I like the chess fans, I like the culture, it’s good!”
I don’t know why we had this big fight with you all in the Revolutionary War.
—Sam Shankland
Adams-Vitiugov
There’s not much to say about this rather quiet Ruy Lopez. Let’s hear from the players once again.
Adams: “My opening went a bit wrong and then it seems like it was Black who was having whatever fun there was. I guess it wasn’t really dangerous for me actually but Black has more options I guess.”
Vitiugov: “In general, my feeling was I got quite a comfortable position out of the opening. Maybe it was a good position for me but nothing special.”
The only moment of excitement, if you can call it that, was when the organizers quickly had to arrange some extra lighting at the start of the round as, apparently, it wasn’t good enough. Adams joked: “I played better in the dark. It was when they were bringing the light that I was getting worried!”
As mentioned yesterday, GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu is playing in the Open to make his FIDE Circuit points valid. He won his first game but kudos to FM Stanley Badacsonyi for putting up a great fight.
You can watch live broadcasts of the event on YouTube. Games from the event can be viewed on our events page.
The 2025 XTX Markets London Chess Classic is a 10-player round-robin taking place November 26-December 5, 2025, at the Emirates Stadium. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting on move one.
