The second round of the European Individual Chess Championship 2025 saw interesting encounters and the top board clashes between the Grandmasters.
We saw plenty of decisive games, but also a bigger number of draws comparing to the statistics of the first round. Playing on the podium reserved for the first three matches, GM Alexey Sarana (SRB, 2689) defeated GM Matej Sebenik (SLO, 2492) and proved the role of the favourite, GM Jorden Van Foreest (NED, 2676) won against IM Jakub Seemann (POL, 2491), but GM Shant Sargsyan (ARM, 2666) drew against English youngster GM Shreyas Royal (ENG, 2491).
One of the biggest upsets of the round happened in the game between the 129th seeded FM Matic Lavrencic (SLO, 2446) and the 34th seed GM Ediz Gurel (TUR, 2620). Matic Lavrencic won the game which opened unusually, and Ediz Gurel missed his chances to get the advantage with Blacks. Lavrencic who recently became the World Junior Vice Champion used his chances and proved his fantastic form by punishing the opponent and winning the game.
After two played rounds, a group of 48 players score perfect 2/2 points and tie for the top, while 88 players follow with the score of 1.5/2 points.
Our studio and GM Alojzije Jankovic and WIM Sandra Djukic hosted many guests today, including GM Aryan Tari (NOR, 2621) and GM Sonis Francesco (ITA, 2570) who analyzed their games, while GM Daniel Dradha (BEL, 2665) gave us a mini interview and spoke about his impressions and ambitions at the tournament.
All results, rankings and pairings can be found here.
The third round starts tomorrow at 15:00 (local time) and live games with video broadcast can be followed through the ECU TV platform.