Undefeated Nihal Wins 2024 President Cup

GM Nihal Sarin won the 3rd President Cup, a strong, nine-round Swiss held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He earned the $25,000 first prize after scoring 7.5/9 undefeated with a performance rating of 2809. 

Final Standings | Top 15

(See full standings here.)

Compared to its previous two editions, this year's tournament was the biggest and strongest yet. 120 players participated in the A Open tournament that boasted a 2401 average rating, with 24 grandmasters among that group.

But it wasn't just the grandmasters who made waves in Tashkent. Five international masters scored six points over the nine days, all of them hailing from either India or Uzbekistan. It should be mentioned that IM Vantika Agrawal, who played on the gold-winning Indian team at the 2024 Chess Olympiad, withdrew after round three after reporting that her result was marked incorrectly by the arbiter as a loss, even after she submitted a scoresheet that said she drew and then notified the organizers about the mistake.

The result has since been corrected, but the error would have affected her pairing in the next round and, thus, her chances of acquiring a grandmaster norm. She wrote on Instagram, "The arbiters did not change the result saying that it is FIDE's rules and that they cannot do anything about it. If it is arbiter's mistake, why should I suffer? I have spent a lot of money to play in this tournament."

I have withdrawn from the tournament. I can’t continue playing in a tournament where wrong result and pairings has been published because of arbiter’s fault and there is no way to correct it inspite of immediate information. There is no guarantee that this will not happen again.…

— Vantika (@vantikachess) November 24, 2024

Of the IMs who finished on six points, the one who stood out most was Uzbek IM Ortik Nigmatov, who scored upsets victories against second-seed GM Parham Maghsoodloo (in round two) and third-seed GM Amin Tabatabaei (in round six), while also making a draw with number-one seed GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov in round five.

Nigmatov's first major upset, against Maghsoodloo in round two, saw the 24-year-old IM outpace his formidable rival in a tactical melee that started with the exchange sacrifice 21...Rxc3!?. After a forced line, Black's king safety was practically a bigger issue than the computer evaluation of 0.00 would lead one to believe, and the Iranian GM didn't manage to defend.

Nigmatov already has three grandmaster norms and ends the tournament with a 2482 rating, needing those 18 last points to earn the grandmaster title. He was in the tied lead all the way until round seven, when Nihal ended his rampage. The game actually came down to an unfortunate opening blunder, falling into a tactical motif that's not too rare in the Queen's Gambit Declined. Can you figure out how White wins a pawn after Black's last move, 7...h6??. 

As for other notable wins by Nihal, he squeezed out an endgame win in 107 moves against GM Sankalp Gupta in round four and won in textbook style against IM Saparmyrat Atabayev in round six, in a game that anyone who plays the Accelerated Dragon with Black should take the time to review.

GM Javokhir Sindarov had been at least tied for the lead in every round of the tournament until round eight, which is when Nihal beat him. It was a nice attacking game that illustrated just how drafty the black kingside can be in the Benoni pawn structure. Weakening the g5-square with 20...h5? proved to be a fatal mistake.

By holding a draw with the black pieces against Abdusattorov in the last round, Nihal secured the title—a smooth landing for the current Indian number-nine.

Despite losing that one game in round two, Maghsoodloo managed to recover and finished with 7/9 and just a 2.9-point rating loss. He's joined in tied second-fourth with Sindarov, who gained 7 points, and his Olympic national teammate GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov, who finished with a one-point rating loss. It wasn't a disaster for the pre-tournament favorite Abdusattorov, who's still the world number-six even after losing about six rating points.

He didn't actually lose any games, but five draws left him on 6.5 points despite his four wins. Imagine putting on a 2700-level performance—and losing rating as a result!

We close with one of the craziest games of the tournament, played between Vokhidov and Nigmatov in the last round. Black sacrificed a piece on move 14, but this had all been played previously and the first new move came only on move 23. Mutual mistakes by both sides, which dramatically swung the evaluation in both directions, show just how difficult the positions were for both players to assess. In the end, however, the higher-rated player triumphed, but it wasn't without a few beautiful pitfalls. Be sure to check out 24...f4!!. 

The 3rd President Cup was a nine-round Swiss tournament that took place from November 21-29 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The time control was 90 minutes for the entire game plus a 30-second increment starting on move one. The total prize fund was $75,000.