Grand Swiss 2025: Nihal Sarin and Vaishali secure victories to claim the lead

GM Nihal Sarin and GM Vaishali Rameshbabu continued their good form to register wins in the 7th round of their respective categories at the 2025 Grand Swiss Tournament in Uzbekistan.

Nihal Sarin got the better of the then-leader, Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran, and is now the joint leader of the tournament in the open section with Matthias Bluebaum of Germany on 5.5/7 points.

Matthias toppled Arjun Erigaisi to draw level with Nihal at the summit, dropping Arjun from the top 10 of the leaderboard with his current tally of 4.5 points from seven games.

Vaishali takes the sole lead in women's Grand Swiss

The defending champion, Vaishali, is looking for her title defence as she has once again taken the sole lead in the women's section with a seventh-round win against Guo Qi of China.

She now has 6 points from the seven games and will be aiming to maintain that lead with a win against Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan in the eighth round on Friday.

In the open section, the defending champion Vidit Gujrathi made a comeback in the tournament with two back-to-back wins and is now just half a point behind the two leaders.

On the other hand, the struggle of reigning World Champion Gukesh Dommraju continued as he faced his third consecutive defeat in the tournament, falling outside the top 80 on the leaderboard.

He will next take on the reigning women's World Cup Champion, Divya Deshmukh, who has overtaken him on the leaderboard with her second win of the tournament against Velimir Ivic of Serbia.