2nd Dole Trophy Pasino Grand Aix R2: Jobava's beauty game

by Shahid Ahmed - 21/07/2025

GM Baadur Jobava (GEO) played a beautiful game in the second round of 2nd Dole Trophy Pasino Grand 2025 Masters. He has had a long and illustrious career full of fantastic games by him. He admitted that these do not fall in his top ten best games, still one must take a look at it to be familiar with Jobava's brand of play. GM Pavel Eljanov (UKR) is the sole player among the top five seeds to win his game. GM Jorden van Foreest (NED), GM Awonder Liang (USA), GM Nils Grandelius (SWE) and GM Jaime Santos Latasa (ESP) were held to a draw each by IM Bennet Hagner (GER), IM Aaryan Varshney, IM Mohamed Anees M and IM Atilla Kuru (TUR) respectively. Round 3 starts today at 2:30 p.m. local time, 6 p.m. IST. Photos: Shahid Ahmed

Aaryan, Anees and Anuj draw against the top seeds

The second round witnessed lots of exciting games. Six out of the top ten seeds were held to draws by their lower rated opponents. All of them were IMs and they provided stiff competition to their counterparts. For the second consecutive round, one game went for over six hours. It was between the newly crowned Netherlands Women's champion, FM Machteld van Foreest (NED) and Sri Sai Baswanth P. The rook vs rook and bishop endgame ended in a draw.

2nd Dole Trophy 2025 is taking place from 19th to 27th July at Pasino Grand in Aix-en-Provence, France

Jorden - Bennet

Position after 41...Nb3

The top seed of the tournament, GM Jorden van Foreest (NED, 2698) made an interesting decision to sacrifice an exchange in order to have a passed pawn on the a-file 42.bxa3 Nxd2 43.Kxd2 Rxd3+ 44.Kc2 Re3 White's winning chances have evaporated. Soon Black returned the exchange to enter into an opposite color bishop endgame where draw became the obvious result.

Final moments: GM Jorden van Foreest (NED) vs IM Bennet Hagner (GER) + interview with Bennet | Video: ChessBase India

IM Bennet Hagner (GER) held the top seed of the tournament, GM Jorden van Foreest (NED) to a well contested draw

Aaryan - Awonder

Position after 39...Nc6

IM Aaryan Varshney (2436) played 40.Bxc6 as he needed to complete the 40th move bxc6 41.Rf3 Rf8 42.Rd3 Rfc8 43.Rf3 and the game ended in a draw. However, computer says 40.f4 gives White a decisive advantage. White maintains the bind and the position is not easy to play as Black.

IM Aaryan Varshney had one good chance in the endgame against GM Awonder Liang (USA)

GM Pavel Eljanov (UKR) scored the sole victory among the top five seeds in Round 2

Anees - Grandelius

Position after 39...Nxd4

The above position seems to end up in a draw. However, computer says otherwise. It finds a long line where White can win this starting with 40.Bf3. It is unbelievable how much computer has become stronger over time. The game was played between two humans - IM Mohamed Anees M (2431) and Sweden no.3, GM Nils Grandelius (SWE, 2642) 40.h3 h5 41.Bd1 Bd5 42.Be2 Bg2 43.h4 and it ended in a draw.

Final moments: IM Mohamed Anees M - GM Nils Grandelius (SWE) + interview with Anees | Video: ChessBase India

One of the latest IMs of India, Mohamed Anees M played a solid draw against Sweden no.1, GM Nils Grandelius

GM Jaime Santos Latasa (ESP) - IM Atilla Kuru (TUR): 0.5-0.5

GM Maxime Lagarde (FRA) defeated IM Steven Rojas Salas (PER) comfortably

Max - Anuj

Position after 44...Bd4?!

Computer does not agree with 44...Bd4 after 45.Qxc6 bxc6 46.Ne7 believes White to be winning. However, it was not to find the winning path. GM Max Warmerdam (NED, 2618) could not and IM Anuj Shrivatri (2416) walked away with a draw.

IM Anuj Shrivatri played a hard-fought draw after a 5.5+ hour-long battle

IM Enes Tanriverdi (TUR) - GM Aydin Suleymanli (AZE): 0.5-0.5

Jobava - Bakhrom

Position after 26.Nd6

GM Baadur Jobava (GEO, 2605) played an absolutely beautiful game against FM Bakhrom Bakhrillaev (UZB, 2412). He played a lot of beautiful moves 26.Nd6 is one of them. The analysis should be heard from the maestro, Jobava himself. Check out the interview with the creative genius himself.

Interview with GM Baadur Jobava | Video: ChessBase India

GM Baadur Jobava (GEO) played beautiful chess against FM Bakhrom Bakhrillaev (UZB)

IM Alice Lee's (USA) passive play was punished by GM Leon Luke Mendonca

David Benezra, CEO of Dole and President of Echiquier du Roy René and the person responsible for Sports in Aix-en-Provence, wished everyone a Happy Chess Day

Happy Chess Day | Video: ChessBase India

A perfect dress donned by FM Alexandra Zherbtsova (MNE) on International Chess Day

After a six minor draw in the first round, GM Abdisalimov Abdimalik (UZB) and FM Jakub Chyzy (POL) had four minor pieces endgame which ended in a draw

Round 2 in progress at Pasino Grand in Aix-en-Provence, France

For more Round 2 photos, please click here.

Replay live stream

Replay Round 2 live commentary by IM Laura Unuk (SLO) and GM Sergei Movsesian (ARM) | Video: Echiquier du Roy René

Replay Round 2 Masters games

Masters Round 2 results

Bo.	No.	White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.	Black	Rtg	No.
1	2	Van Foreest, Jorden	2698	1	½ - ½	1	Hagner, Bennet	2435	135
2	134	Aaryan, Varshney	2436	1	½ - ½	1	Liang, Awonder	2693	3
3	6	Eljanov, Pavel	2675	1	1 - 0	1	Degraeve, Remy	2429	143
4	142	Mohamed, Anees M	2431	1	½ - ½	1	Grandelius, Nils	2642	7
5	10	Santos Latasa, Jaime	2623	1	½ - ½	1	Kuru, Atilla	2428	147
6	150	Rojas Salas, Steven	2425	1	0 - 1	1	Lagarde, Maxime	2618	11
7	14	Warmerdam, Max	2618	1	½ - ½	1	Anuj, Shrivatri	2416	155
8	159	Tanriverdi, Enes	2413	1	½ - ½	1	Suleymanli, Aydin	2607	15
9	18	Jobava, Baadur	2605	1	1 - 0	1	Bakhrillaev, Bakhrom	2412	163
10	162	Lee, Alice	2412	1	0 - 1	1	Mendonca, Leon Luke	2603	19
11	167	Audi, Ameya	2409	1	0 - 1	1	Jacobson, Brandon	2569	23
12	26	Vetokhin, Savva	2569	1	½ - ½	1	Schnaider, Ilan	2404	171
13	170	Rakhmatullaev, Almas	2409	1	½ - ½	1	Gorshtein, Ido	2568	27
14	176	Defromont, Benjamin	2398	1	½ - ½	1	Iniyan, Pa	2558	31
15	177	Palczert, Matyas	2396	1	½ - ½	1	Raja, Rithvik R	2557	35

Details

Standings after Round 2

Rk.	SNo	Name	Rtg	Pts.	TB2	TB3
1	97	Caglar, Sila	2225	2	2,00	3263
2	6	Eljanov, Pavel	2675	2	2,00	3167
3	18	Jobava, Baadur	2605	2	2,00	3149
4	23	Jacobson, Brandon	2569	2	2,00	3146
5	39	Madaminov, Mukhiddin	2553	2	2,00	3135
6	42	Gopal, G.n.	2549	2	2,00	3133
7	55	Can, Isik	2525	2	2,00	3111
8	54	Costa, Leonardo	2528	2	2,00	3110
9	62	Xiao, Tong Qd	2520	2	2,00	3098
10	255	Senthil, Maran K	2328	2	2,00	3095
11	67	Mardov, Dimitar	2506	2	2,00	3094
12	70	Malek, Jan	2499	2	2,00	3091
13	86	Bazakutsa, Svyatoslav	2474	2	2,00	3076
14	273	Sivanandan, Bodhana	2087	2	1,50	3178
15	11	Lagarde, Maxime	2618	2	1,50	3162

Details

Round 3 pairings

Bo.	No.	White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.	Black	Rtg	No.
1	79	Schitco, Ivan	2481	2		2	Eljanov, Pavel	2675	6
2	11	Lagarde, Maxime	2618	2		2	Bazakutsa, Svyatoslav	2474	86
3	95	Trost, Edvin	2470	2		2	Jobava, Baadur	2605	18
4	19	Mendonca, Leon Luke	2603	2		2	Koelle, Tobias	2466	99
5	23	Jacobson, Brandon	2569	2		2	Celik, Hasan Huseyin	2465	102
6	39	Madaminov, Mukhiddin	2553	2		2	Lamaze, Simon	2458	106
7	107	Cieslak, Patryk	2458	2		2	Gopal, G.n.	2549	42
8	115	Nitish, Belurkar	2453	2		2	Gavrilescu, David	2543	46
9	119	Lu, Miaoyi	2452	2		2	Liu, Yan	2536	50
10	51	Tiglon, Bryce	2535	2		2	Gagare, Shardul	2453	114
11	123	Seemann, Jakub	2451	2		2	Costa, Leonardo	2528	54
12	55	Can, Isik	2525	2		2	Garifullina, Leya	2450	126
13	59	Peng, Xiongjian	2520	2		2	Nie, Xinyang	2381	184
14	131	Camlar, Arda	2443	2		2	Xiao, Tong Qd	2520	62
15	67	Mardov, Dimitar	2506	2		2	Smirnov, Mark	2352	221

Details

Links

Official site: Dole and Echiquier du Roy

Tournament details

Echiquier du Roy René fb page

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