Total Chess Pilot 2026 Day 1: Magnus plays the Dutch against the Dutch no.1

by Sagar Shah - 12/11/2026

The group stage of the Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot began in Budapest on the 11th of November 2026, and the match of the day was Anish Giri against Magnus Carlsen. Magnus played the Dutch Defence against the Dutch no.1 in the first game. Anish sacrificed a bishop on g2 in the second. Both games were drawn, and that leaves both of them two points behind Ian Nepomniachtchi in Group C. Among the Indians, R. Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi drew both their games after being in serious trouble in the second, and R. Vaishali lost one and drew one against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

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Anish Giri and Magnus Carlsen shake hands before the first game. This was the match everyone wanted to watch on the first day of the groups | Photo: Michal Walusza/Total Chess

Each day in the group stage you play two Fast Classic games (45 minutes plus 30 seconds a move) against the same opponent, once with White and once with Black. A win gives you 3 points, a draw 1 and a loss 0. Out of the 24 games played on the day, 10 were decisive. And yet not a single player managed to win both games!

Magnus plays the Dutch against the Dutch no.1

In the first game Anish had the white pieces. Magnus answered 1.d4 with 1...f5, the Dutch Defence, against the best player of the Netherlands! Anish went for an early b4, and after ten moves this was the position.

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Giri vs Carlsen, game one. Magnus has just jumped in with his knight to e4. White to move: where would you put your queen, b3 or c2?

Anish played 11.Qb3. The right square was c2! From there the queen attacks the knight on e4, and Black has no comfortable way to keep it in the centre. White would have had a huge edge. After 11.Qb3 Anish was still pressing, but Magnus defended well. He broke up the white centre with ...b6 and ...bxc5, the queens came off on move 20, and the game was drawn in 35 moves.

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Anish makes his move in the first game | Photo: Michal Walusza/Total Chess

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Magnus had some defending to do with the black pieces | Photo: Michal Walusza/Total Chess

Anish sacrifices a bishop

The second game was a tremendously intense battle. Magnus, with White, got a position with an isolated queen's pawn and active pieces. Anish pushed his g-pawn, brought his knight to h4, and then came this moment.

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Carlsen vs Giri, game two. Magnus has attacked the bishop on d5 with his knight. Black to move: what would you play?

Anish did not move the bishop away. He played 26...Bxg2! Magnus took it, the knight landed on f3 with check, and after the king went to h1 Anish pushed his e-pawn.

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The point of the sacrifice. The pawn has moved from e6 to e5, and the queen on c8 now looks straight at h3. To play like this against Magnus, with three minutes on the clock!

Magnus had to give his rook for the knight on f3. Anish had a rook and two pawns for two pieces, the white king was open, and both players were down to a minute or two. Neither of them slipped. They played extremely accurate chess for another thirty moves, and the game was drawn on move 62.

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The second game: Magnus with the white pieces | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Total Chess

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A tremendous fight, and smiles from both players when it was over | Photo: Michal Walusza/Total Chess

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Anish Giri was the one asking the questions in both games | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Total Chess

Stockfish or Human? Magnus Carlsen vs Anish Giri

An instructive chess moment

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Carlsen vs Giri, game two. Anish has just recaptured on d5 with his knight. White to move: what would you play?

Magnus played 14.Bxd5! A move that I would have never made. Why? Because usually you don't give up such a nice bishop for a knight just like that. But after Black recaptures with 14...Bxd5, the knight on c3 is no longer under pressure. In fact, it is the one putting pressure on d5!

Also, two pairs of minor pieces do not get exchanged, and that is actually quite good for the side with the isolated pawn. The more pieces there are on the board, the better it is for Magnus.

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Later, the way in which Magnus created play with Ng4 and Be5 was definitely something to learn from

Kudos to Anish for defending excellently as well.

The match ended 1-1. But this format rewards a win much more than two draws! Magnus and Anish are on 2 points each. Nepomniachtchi beat Abhimanyu Mishra in the first game, drew the second, and leads the group with 4. Even Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Haik Martirosyan, who lost a game each, are ahead of the world no.1 with 3 points.

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Ian Nepomniachtchi is the leader of Group C after a win and a draw against Abhimanyu Mishra | Photo: Michal Walusza/Total Chess

Pragg looks shaky, but survives

Praggnanandhaa was up against Vincent Keymer, and it was not an easy day for him. In the first game he had the white pieces in a Caro-Kann, and he developed his rook in a very unusual way.

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Praggnanandhaa vs Keymer, game one. Pragg has just played 15.Ra2!? A weird way to develop the rook!

The idea is to bring the rook into the game along the second rank. But the position was tough for White, and Pragg was running out of time. On move 25 his clock showed four seconds! He kept his nerve, held the endgame and the game was drawn in 44 moves.

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Pragg gets ready for the first game, with Anish Giri standing behind him | Photo: Michal Walusza/Total Chess

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Praggnanandhaa definitely dodged a couple of bullets on day 1 | Photo: Michal Walusza/Total Chess

The second game was worse. Pragg, with Black, was completely lost.

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Keymer vs Praggnanandhaa, game two. Pragg has just played 38...Nf5. White to play and win!

Vincent found the first move, 39.Ne5! The knight attacks the queen, and after the rooks came off on e1 Pragg had to go back with his queen to c8.

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White to move once again. Vincent took on g7 here. What should he have played?

The winning move was 41.g4! The knight has to take on h6, and then the white queen comes in to e7.

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This is what could have happened. The knight on h6 has no good square, the black queen cannot leave the back rank, and the pawn on c6 is falling. Complete domination!

Vincent played 41.hxg7 instead, and the queens were soon exchanged. He got one more winning chance in the knight endgame, with only seconds left on his clock, and missed that as well. Draw in 57 moves, and a big sigh of relief for Pragg.

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It was that kind of a day for Pragg | Photo: Michal Walusza/Total Chess

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Two draws on the scoresheet, but Pragg knows he got away with one | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Total Chess

Arjun: one solid game, one crazy game

Arjun Erigaisi played Hans Niemann. With the black pieces in the first game he was very solid. The queens were exchanged on move 13 and the game ended in a draw by repetition on move 31.

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The first game between Hans Niemann and Arjun was a solid draw. | Photo: Michal Walusza/Total Chess

With the white pieces it was completely wild! Arjun offered a pawn with b4 on move three, later gave up a rook for a knight, and was on the verge of losing.

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Arjun Erigaisi vs Niemann, game two. Arjun has just played 26.Qb2. Black to move: how do you make use of the weak pawn on e3?

A move like 26...Qh6! hits the weakness on e3 and gives White a lot of trouble. Hans played 26...Rde8, and Arjun got his central pawns rolling with d5 and d6. Hans could not convert his extra material, and with Arjun down to seconds the game ended in a draw by repetition on move 51.

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Arjun Erigaisi was treading on a thin rope on day 1 but survived | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Total Chess

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When two complete mavericks play, you are always in for a treat. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Total Chess

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Arjun has a tough group and will need to get some wins in if he wants to top it in the next 4 days! | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Total Chess

Vaishali: one move away from a draw, then a great save

Vaishali played two fantastic games against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who finished second in the blitz. She looks like she is getting into the groove before her World Championship match in 2027.

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Maxime Vachier-Lagrave takes a walk while Vaishali thinks about her move | Photo: Michal Walusza/Total Chess

In the first game she had White, and after the queens came off early the players reached a pawn endgame. Vaishali had about a minute on her clock.

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Vaishali vs Vachier-Lagrave, game one. White to move. Only one move holds the draw. Can you find it?

The amazing move is 34.b4!!

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34.b4!! Black can take it in two ways or push past it, and in every case the black king has no way in. It was extremely difficult to find!

Vaishali played 34.Ke3. MVL replied 34...c4! and now the white pawns on b2 and c3 were stuck. He broke through with ...d4, his king walked all the way to b2, and Vaishali had to throw in the towel.

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Vaishali is showing some of the best chess of her life in Budapest | Photo: Tor Nilssen/Total Chess

To come back after such a loss and play again a couple of hours later is not easy. In the second game Vaishali, with Black, lost a pawn and landed in an extremely difficult rook endgame. MVL had more than nine minutes on his clock, she had less than one.

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Vachier-Lagrave vs Vaishali, game two. Black is a pawn down. Black to move: what would you play?

Vaishali played 41...b3! She gave up a second pawn to bring her rook to life on the b-file, won the pawn back three moves later, and held MVL to a draw in 65 moves!

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One point from two games against MVL, and it could so easily have been two | Photo: Michal Walusza/Total Chess

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This tournament is just the perfect kind of practice for Vaishali to take her chess to the next level | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Total Chess

Bibisara holds Wesley So twice

On the day of the blitz Bibisara Assaubayeva scored only half a point from nine games. A day later the Kazakh GM held Wesley So, the top seed of Group D and rated nearly 240 points above her, to a draw in both games! That is an amazing show.

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Wesley So could not find a way past Bibisara Assaubayeva with either colour | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Total Chess

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Bibisara Assaubayeva: two games against the top seed of her group, two draws | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Total Chess

The four groups after day one

A win is 3 points, a draw is 1. If two players are level, the one who finished higher in the Blitz Swiss is ahead.

Group A

Rank	Player	Win	Draw	Loss	Points
1	Alireza Firouzja	1	1	0	4
2	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	1	1	0	4
3	Levon Aronian	1	0	1	3
4	Jorden van Foreest	1	0	1	3
5	Andrew Hong	0	1	1	1
6	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	0	1	1	1

Firouzja beat the top seed Abdusattorov in a 74-move first game and drew the second. Duda drew and then beat Andrew Hong. Aronian and van Foreest won a game each, both with the black pieces! Abdusattorov, who had a rough blitz, is at the bottom for now.

Group B

Rank	Player	Win	Draw	Loss	Points
1	Fabiano Caruana	1	1	0	4
2	Le Quang Liem	1	1	0	4
3	Vincent Keymer	0	2	0	2
4	R. Praggnanandhaa	0	2	0	2
5	Richard Rapport	0	1	1	1
6	Vladislav Artemiev	0	1	1	1

Caruana beat the local hero Richard Rapport with Black and then drew. Le Quang Liem drew and then beat Vladislav Artemiev in 32 moves. Pragg is two points behind the leaders, and today he plays one of them.

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Peter Leko wishes his country mate Richard Rapport before the first game | Photo: Michal Walusza/Total Chess

Group C

Rank	Player	Win	Draw	Loss	Points
1	Ian Nepomniachtchi	1	1	0	4
2	Haik Martirosyan	1	0	1	3
3	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	1	0	1	3
4	Magnus Carlsen	0	2	0	2
5	Anish Giri	0	2	0	2
6	Abhimanyu Mishra	0	1	1	1

Mamedyarov and Martirosyan also won with Black against each other, and Martirosyan needed only 21 moves for his win! Abhimanyu Mishra lost the first game to Nepomniachtchi and then held him in a 98-move marathon, the longest game of the day. Magnus is fourth. I don't think he will stay there for long.

Group D

Rank	Player	Win	Draw	Loss	Points
1	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	1	1	0	4
2	Hans Niemann	0	2	0	2
3	Arjun Erigaisi	0	2	0	2
4	Wesley So	0	2	0	2
5	Bibisara Assaubayeva	0	2	0	2
6	R. Vaishali	0	1	1	1

MVL's win over Vaishali was the only decisive game of the group. Everything else was drawn, so four players are on 2 points and nobody is far from anybody.

Playing two games a day is very tiring for the players, even though the time control is 45 minutes plus 30 seconds. Some of them were at the board for close to a hundred moves in a single game, and then had to come back and do it all over again. With four more days like this to go, energy is going to matter as much as preparation.

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The playing hall at the Anantara New York Palace Hotel in Budapest | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Total Chess

Pairings for the 12th of November

The players listed first have White in game one. The colours are reversed in game two.

Group	Game one (7.30 p.m. IST), White vs Black
A	Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs Jan-Krzysztof Duda
A	Levon Aronian vs Andrew Hong
A	Alireza Firouzja vs Jorden van Foreest
B	Le Quang Liem vs Vincent Keymer
B	Fabiano Caruana vs R. Praggnanandhaa
B	Vladislav Artemiev vs Richard Rapport
C	Magnus Carlsen vs Abhimanyu Mishra
C	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov vs Ian Nepomniachtchi
C	Anish Giri vs Haik Martirosyan
D	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs Wesley So
D	Arjun Erigaisi vs Bibisara Assaubayeva
D	R. Vaishali vs Hans Niemann

It is a big day for the Indians. Pragg faces Caruana, the leader of his group, first with Black and then with White. Arjun plays Bibisara, who has just held Wesley So twice. And Vaishali meets Hans Niemann, whom she beat in the very first round of the blitz!

The first game begins at 7.30 p.m. IST and the second at 11 p.m. IST. You can follow the games live on chessbase.in/live, with commentary on the ChessBase India YouTube channel.