31st TePe Sigeman & Co. 2026 R3: Arjun Erigaisi outwits Nils Grandelius, joins the lead

By admin May 4, 2026 0 comments

Arjun Erigaisi scored his first win of the event in Round 3 of 31st TePe Sigeman & Co. 2026. He won against the Sweden no.1, Nils Grandelius, handing him his third consecutive loss. Magnus Carlsen (NOR) played a solid draw against Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB). Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (TUR) scored the only other win of the round against Jiner Zhu (CHN).

Five players at 2/3

A strong field has produced five players in the lead at 2/3. The tournament is almost at the halfway mark and anyone can win it.

Arjun – Grandelius: 1-0

After two blacks, Arjun Erigaisi (2751) got his first White pieces of the event against the Sweden no.1, Nils Grandelius (2662). They played five Classical rated games against each other, three of them were here in Malmo. Both won a game each and the remaining three ended in draws. Grandelius opted for the Dragon in Sicilian Defence in their fourth battle against each other. In the endgame, White’s queenside passed pawns turned out to be stronger and faster than his opponent’s kingside ones.

Position after 22…Bxg2

Arjun mentioned in the post-game interview that after 23.a4 Ra8 Black should have played h5 himself to prevent White from doing that.

Arjun Erigaisi defeated Nils Grandelius to join the lead 2/3 | Photo: Peter Doggers, https://www.tepesigemanchess.com/

Interview with Arjun Erigaisi | Video: Sveriges Schackförbund

Andy Woodward (USA) – Jorden van Foreest (NED): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Peter Doggers, https://www.tepesigemanchess.com/

Carlsen – Abdusattorov: 0.5-0.5

It might be difficult to believe but Magnus Carlsen (NOR, 2840) and Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB, 2780) have played only two Classical rated games against each other. Abdusattorov won one and the second game ended in a draw. This is their third Classical battle against each other. The last one took place in June 2023 in Norway. Abdusattorov mentioned in the post-game interview that it was a high-quality game. The World no.1 surprised him a little bit with 4.Qc2 playing an off-beat opening according to him. He also added that it was a boring, not an exciting game that they played against each other and that’s elite level chess.

Interview with Nodirbek Abdusattorov | Video: Sveriges Schackförbund

Magnus Carlsen (NOR) – Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Peter Doggers, https://www.tepesigemanchess.com/

Jiner – Yagiz: 0-1

The only Classical rated game played between Jiner Zhu (CHN, 2546) and Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (TUR, 2708) was won by the former nearly two years ago. A lot has changed since then, Yagiz became much stronger and he crossed 2700 last month. Yagiz mentioned in the post-game interview that his opponent surprised him with 1.Nf3, 2.e3 setup. White managed to open the g-file to launch an attack but it was not enough as she could not bring the other rook to the kingside.

Jiner Zhu (CHN) – Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (TUR): 0-1 | Photo: Peter Doggers, https://www.tepesigemanchess.com/

Interview with Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus | Video: Sveriges Schackförbund

Replay live stream

Replay Round 3 live commentary by GM Erwin l’Ami (NED) and GM Stellan Brynell (SWE) | Video: Sveriges Schackförbund

Time Control

90 minutes for 40 moves and then 30 minutes for the remaining moves with 30 seconds cumulative increment for each move starting from the first move (Malmö rules – no draws before move 40).