Carlsen escapes with a draw against Mishra

The second day of the group stage at the Total Chess Pilot in Budapest saw two players score maximum points, as Fabiano Caruana and Hans Niemann defeated their respective opponents twice on Thursday. Coincidentally, both Americans faced one of the Rameshbabu siblings, with Caruana beating Praggnanandhaa and Niemann defeating Vaishali. Caruana is now the highest scorer among all 24 participants, having collected 10 points from three wins and a draw under the football-style scoring system.

Caruana leads Group B outright, while Niemann shares first place in Group D with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, both on 8 points. In Group A, Alireza Firouzja is the sole leader after collecting a win and a draw for the second consecutive day, also reaching 8 points.

Hans Niemann defeated Vaishali Rameshbabu twice (after the Indian GM had defeated him in the blitz tournament) and is now co-leader in Group D | Photo: Michal Walusza

Alireza Firouzja is leading Group A with 8 points | Photo: Michal Walusza

Meanwhile, Group C has the tightest standings, with Ian Nepomniachtchi and Haik Martirosyan sharing the lead on 6 points. The two have reached that score in contrasting fashion: Nepo defeated Abhimanyu Mishra once and drew his other three games, while Martirosyan has collected two wins and two losses, bouncing back from defeat to level the score in both of his mini-matches. Anish Giri and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov stand 1 point behind the leaders.

Magnus Carlsen, rather surprisingly, stands fifth in Group C with 4 points, having drawn all four of his games. The Norwegian is the only player in the tournament yet to record either a win or a loss. What is more, he was fortunate to escape with a draw in his second encounter with Mishra, having reached a clearly inferior endgame. Despite his slow start, Carlsen remains only 2 points behind the leaders, while Mishra, in last place with 3 points, is also within striking distance. Note that only the group winners will have a chance to compete for tournament victory in the knockout stage.

Magnus Carlsen dealing with a tough endgame against 17-year-old Abhimanyu Mishra | Photo: Michal Walusza

Drawing twice against the best player in the world is a strong result - though Mishra later noted that "you should really win such a game" | Photo: Michal Walusza

The most notable result on Thursday was Bibisara Assaubayeva's victory with the black pieces over Arjun Erigaisi. Rated 2532, Assaubayeva defeated the 2746-rated Indian super-GM with the black pieces in their first encounter of the day (see game with annotations below), recording her first career win against a player rated above 2700.

Erigaisi bounced back to win their second game, but that does not take away from Assaubayeva's achievement. Following two draws against Wesley So on Wednesday, she has earned 11.4 rating points and climbed to fourth place in the women's live ratings.

Assaubayeva and Erigaisi share third place in Group D with 5 points each, 3 behind Niemann and Vachier-Lagrave. Wesley So, who first lost and then drew with Vachier-Lagrave on Thursday, stands fifth with 3 points. Reflecting on his results so far, the US representative remarked, "It's pretty clear I found my worst chess format".

It was a memorable day for Bibisara Assaubayeva, who managed to beat Arjun Erigaisi from the black side of a King's Indian Defence | Photo: Michal Walusza

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is tied for first place in Group D, while Wesley So has failed to find his best form in Budapest | Photo: Michal Walusza

Group A

Rounds 3 & 4

Standings (win = 3 pts., draw = 1 pt.)

Nodirbek Abdusattorov facing Jan-Krzysztof Duda | Photo: Michal Walusza

All games

Group B

Rounds 3 & 4

Standings (win = 3 pts., draw = 1 pt.)

Two players who are having a great 2026 - Fabiano Caruana and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | Photo: Michal Walusza

All games

Group C

Rounds 3 & 4

Standings (win = 3 pts., draw = 1 pt.)

Anish Giri v. Haik Martirosyan | Photo: Michal Walusza

All games

Group D

Rounds 3 & 4

Standings (win = 3 pts., draw = 1 pt.)

Bibisara Assaubayeva | Photo: Michal Walusza

All games

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