The players went back to the office today after yesterday’s free day at the European Individual Chess Championship 2025.
The 7th round brought lots of exciting games and it finished with thrilling results that significantly changed the rankings. We now have three players tying for the top with the score of 6/7 points: GM Matthias Bluebaum, GM Aryan Tari, and GM Baadur Jobava.
GM Matthias Bluebaum (GER, 2643) took down the previous rounds leader GM Daniil Yuffa (ESP, 2654). Bluebaum entered the middlegame with a clear advantage when Yuffa decided to sacrifice an exchange for the initiative and went for an compelling but demanding position. The German representative was better on time, defended well, and eventually created the mating net around Yuffa’s King, forcing him to resignation.
GM Aryan Tari (NOR, 2621) was victorious against GM Gleb Dudin (HUN, 2544) with White pieces. Tari went for 6.Qd3 line against Najdorf, with the positional approach in the game. White played for a space advantage and constantly pressured Blacks, and Dudin eventually cracked in the endgame, allowing Tari to score a point.
GM Baadur Jobava (GEO, 2578) won the game against GM Haik Martirosyan (ARM, 2630) after a long fight with luck on his side, since Martirosyan badly blundered into a drawn endgame to lose on the spot. Martirosyan played 50.e6??, missing out that he couldn’t stop Jobava’s f-pawn from promotion after that point. Baadur Jobava found the winning motive, and scored a victory to place himself on the top of the rankings list.
The leaders are followed by a group of 11 players who score 5.5/7 and trail by half a point: GM Lorenzo Lodici (ITA, 2559), GM Daniil Yuffa (ESP, 2654), GM Benjamin Gledura (HUN, 2658), GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (GRE, 2580), GM Gabriel Sargissian (ARM, 2628), GM Maxime Lagarde (FRA, 2615), GM Frederik Svane (GER, 2654), GM Paul Velten (FRA, 2515), GM Szymon Gumularz (POL, 2591), GM Yuriy Kuzubov (UKR, 2603), and GM Ediz Gurel (TUR, 2620).
During today’s round, our hosts GM Alojzije Jankovic and WIM Lena Govedarica hosted GM Ediz Gurel (TUR, 2620) who won today’s game against GM Ihor Samunenkov (UKR, 2556). After that, 14-year-old Romanian chess prodigy FM Henry Edward Tudors (ROU, 2384) joined the studio, analyzing his drawn game against GM Barlomiej Heberla (POL, 2384).
The 8th round starts tomorrow at 15:00 (local time), bringing interesting encounters on the top boards. Live games and commentaries by GM Alojzije Jankovic and WIM Lena Govedarica can be followed through the ECU TV platform or the ECU YouTube channel.
All rankings, results, pairings can be found here.