GCT Super Chess Classic 2026: Jorden van Foreest hunts Deac’s king

By admin May 17, 2026 0 comments

The Dutch GMs – Anish Giri and Jorden van Foreest scored the wins in Round 3 of Grand Chess Tour Super Chess Classic 2026. Five players are now at 2/3.

Giri, Jorden, MVL, Praggnanandhaa and Keymer in a five-way lead

R Praggnanandhaa played a hard-fought draw againt Vincent Keymer. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Javokhir Sindarov played a short draw in 15 moves. Anish Giri and Jorden van Foreest scored the wins over Alireza Firouzja and Bogdan-Daniel Deac respectively. The All-American clash between Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana also ended in draw. Currently, there are five players – Giri, Jorden, MVL, Praggnanandhaa and Keymer at 2/3.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) and Javokhir Sindarov (UZB) played a quick 15-move draw | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Giri – Firouzja: 1-0

Anish Giri (NED, 2767) and Alireza Firouzja (FRA, 2759) have played nine Classical rated games against each other. Firouzja won two and the remaining seven games ended in draws. This time, Giri scored his first win against Firouzja after the latter made a late endgame error.

Position after 68.b4

68…Be1?? directly is a loss due to 69.Rc4+ Ke3 70.b5 which is what happened in the game h1Q+ 71.Kxh1 Kf3 72.Rc2 Kf4 and White won. What Black needed to do was promote first 68…h1Q/R 69.Kxh1 Be1 70.Rc4+ Kf3 the difference maker. Having 70…Kf3 allows Black to salvage a half point whereas it became impossible when Black played 68….Be1?? first.

Anish Giri (NED) scored his first-ever Classical win against Alireza Firouzja (FRA) | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Interview with Anish Giri | Video: Saint Louis Chess Club

Wesley So (USA) – Fabiano Caruana (USA): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Praggnanandhaa – Keymer: 0.5-0.5

R Praggnanandhaa (2733) and Vincent Keymer (GER, 2759) played ten Classical rated games against each other. Praggnanandhaa won four, Keymer three and the remaining three ended in a draw. Their eleventh Classical battle was a well contested draw.

R Praggnanandhaa – Vincent Keymer (GER): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Deac – Jorden: 0-1

Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU, 2650) and Jorden van Foreest (NED, 2735) faced each other in a Classical rated game only once over 2.5 years ago which ended in a draw. This time Deac’s misadventures with his king cost the game.

Position after 35.Kf2?

35.Kf2? Bc4-+ 36.Qh5 Qg7 37.Qh2 Nxe4+ 38.Bxe4 Rxe4 39.Rb7 Qxb7 40.Nxe4 Qb2+ 41.Rd2 Qb1 and Black went on to hunt White’s king successfully.

Final position 56…Ba2+

A beautiful finish.

Bogan-Daniel Deac’s (ROU) king got hunted by Jorden van Foreest (NED) | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Interview with Jorden van Foreest (NED) | Video: Saint Louis Chess Club

Romanian Striker, Florin Raducioiu, made the ceremonial first move of Round 3 | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Interview with Florin Raducioiu | Video: Saint Louis Chess Club

How many seconds and accompanying persons of players can you spot in this photo? | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Round 3 in progress | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Replay Round 3 live stream

Replay Round 3 live commentary by GMs Yasser Seirawan, Peter Svidler, & Cristian Chirila, IMs Nazi Paikidze & Irene Sukandar, and WGM Anastasiya Karlovich | Video: Saint Louis Chess Club

Replay Round 3 games

Schedule and Format

Super Chess Classic will have one round per day from 14th to 23rd May. Rest day is on Tuesday 19th May. Each round starts at 4 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST, except the last round which starts at 2 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. It will be a 10-player Round Robin event. Time control will be 40 moves in 90 minutes + 30 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.