Levon Aronian is the new leader of the FIDE Circuit race following his strong showing at the Satty Zhuldyz rapid and blitz tournament. The stellar line-up of this event was a mix of true chess legends and upcoming stars.

 The American GM picked up FIDE Circuit 8.07 points, and with a tally of 32.81, he edged out Gukesh D to the second position. The composition of the top 10 remained unchanged.

FIDE Circuit Race Top 10  as of April 25, 2023

On the last day of the Satty Zhuldyz rapid and blitz event, the final eleven rounds of blitz were played by some of the strongest players in the world battling for their share of an impressive $270,000 prize fund.

A healthy mixture of legends of the sport, such as the 14th World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik, and four-times Women’s World Champion, Hou Yifan, and several famous players, namely Alexander Grischuk, Boris Gelfand, and Kateryna Lagno, fought with some of the most promising chess talents.

This group included a local star and the top young lady in the world, WGM Bibisara Assaubayeva. Alongside her were the strongest chess prodigies in the world – Vincent Keymer (Germany), Arjun Ergaisi (India) and Javokhir Sindarov (Uzbekistan).

During the pre-tournament press conference, former Blitz World Champion Levon Aronian joked about ensuring to “beat the prodigies while they are still young!” As they say, every joke has a grain of truth.

Over three days of rapid and two days of the blitz, Aronian had the most consistent results, taking silver in the rapid tournament (with Arjun Ergaisi coming out on top) and finishing second in the blitz portion (with Haik Martirosyan claiming gold). Levon’s results across the two tournaments combined gave him overall gold.

Arjun Ergaisi (pictured below) took the overall silver. The young Indian put up a dominant performance in the rapid tournament, finishing 1.5 points ahead of the rest of the field, but did not do so well in the blitz coming only 5th. Another youngster, Haik Martirosyan, claimed the overall bronze after winning the blitz tournament and finishing 5th in the rapid event, as the place in rapid was used as a tiebreaker in case of an equal score.

During the closing ceremony that featured local celebrities, dignitaries, live music and a show, the players received money prizes, with Aronian pocketing roughly $50,000 USD for taking gold.  

Text: Maria Emelianova

Photos: Maria Emelianova and Damir Kuzhumov