by Shahid Ahmed – 07/06/2025
Aravindh Chithambaram defeated Aram Hakobyan (ARM) to become the winner of 6th Stepan Avagyan Memorial 2025. Aravindh made a nice calculation in the queen and double knight endgame, resulting in a crucial pawn gain after his opponent erred. R Praggnanandhaa also ended up scoring the same as Aravindh 6.5/9. However, Aravindh became the champion due to better tie-break scores, Praggnanandhaa had to settle for second place. They finished 1.5 points ahead of the rest. Dmitrij Kollars (GER) scored 5/9 to finish third. Aravindh is now World no.9 with a live rating 2757.8, Praggnanandhaa is World no.6 with a live rating 2774.2. Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia
Aravindh clinches his third consecutive Classical Super Tournament
GM Aravindh Chithambaram is the personification of seizing every opportunity one gets. He won his third consecutive Classical Super Tournament he played. First Chennai Grand Masters 2024, then Prague International Chess Festival Masters 2025 in March and now 6th Stepan Avagyan Memorial 2025. Consistency at the top level is pretty rare because it is quite difficult. The total prize fund was 7450000 AMD (≈ US$ 19325). The top three prizes were 3100000 AMD (≈ US$ 8041), 1 850 000 AMD (≈ US$ 4799) and 1500000 (≈ US$ 3891).
Champion – Aravindh Chithambaram 6.5/9 | Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia
Runner-up – R Praggnanandhaa 6.5/9
| Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia
Second Runner-up – Dmitrij Kollars (GER) 5/9 | Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia
All participants of 6th Stepan Avagyan Memorial with GM FST Smbat Lputian (ARM), Vice President, Armenia Chess Federation | Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia
Top two (L to R): Champion – GM Aravindh Chithambaram 6.5/9, GM Vaibhav Suri, second of the runner-up – GM R Praggnanandhaa 6.5/9 | Photo: GM Harshit Raja
Aram – Aravindh: 0-1
Aravindh Chithambaram (2749) faced Aram Hakobyan (ARM, 2620) thrice in Classical rated games. All of them ended in draws. However, this time he was in a virtual must-win position, if he wanted to finish first. He showed his intentions in the queen and double knight endgame.
Position after 29.Nc2
29.Nc2 was played with the idea of Qd8+ fork. Aravindh took the pawn 29…Nxe4 30.Qd8+ Kh7 31.Qxe7? better was Qxc7 to keep things in balance. 31…Qe2 32.h4? Qxf2+ 33.Kh2 Qxc2 and Black went on to win the endgame with precise play.
Aravindh Chithambaram scored a crucial victory against Aram Hakobyan (ARM) in the final round | Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia
Praggnanandhaa – Hovhannisyan
Position after 24.gxf3
Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM, 2635) did not navigate the series of pawn exchange correctly 24…cxd5 25.axb5 Rdc8 26.Rxd5 Rxc3 27.Rxd6 Nc5? 28.Rc6+- things slowly spiralled out of control for Black Rb8 29.Nb1 Rc2 30.Rd1 Kh7 31.b6 and R Praggnanandhaa (2767) won the game in another nine moves.
R Praggnanandhaa scored an emphatic victory over Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM) | Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia
Replay live stream
Replay Round 9 live commentary by IM Lilit Mkrtchian (ARM) and GM Harshit Raja | Video: ChessBase India
Replay Round 9 games
Time Control
90 minutes for the first 40 moves + 30 minutes for the rest of the game (with 30 seconds increment starting from move one).
Prizes
The total prize fund was 7450000 AMD (≈ US$ 19325). The top three prizes were 3100000 AMD (≈ US$ 8041), 1 850 000 AMD (≈ US$ 4799) and 1500000
(≈ US$ 3891).
Round 9 results
Final standings
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | IND | 2749 | 6,5 | 26,75 | 4 | 0 | |
| 2 | 9 | GM | Praggnanandhaa R | IND | 2758 | 6,5 | 26,25 | 5 | 0 | |
| 3 | 6 | GM | Kollars Dmitrij | GER | 2625 | 5 | 21,25 | 5 | 0 | |
| 4 | 4 | GM | Sevian Samuel | USA | 2694 | 4,5 | 20,25 | 4 | 0 | |
| 5 | 3 | GM | Bjerre Jonas Buhl | DEN | 2641 | 4,5 | 19,00 | 4 | 0 | |
| 6 | 5 | GM | Yakubboev Nodirbek | UZB | 2665 | 4 | 17,00 | 4 | 0 | |
| 7 | 10 | GM | Xu Xiangyu | CHN | 2623 | 4 | 16,75 | 5 | 0 | |
| 8 | 8 | GM | Hakobyan Aram | ARM | 2620 | 4 | 16,00 | 5 | 0 | |
| 9 | 1 | GM | Hovhannisyan Robert | ARM | 2635 | 3,5 | 14,75 | 4 | 0 | |
| 10 | 7 | GM | Gledura Benjamin | HUN | 2663 | 2,5 | 10,50 | 5 | 0 |
Schedule
| Wednesday | 28 May at 19:00 | Opening Ceremony |
| Thursday | 29 May at 15:00 | Round 1 |
| Friday | 30 May at 15:00 | Round 2 |
| Saturday | 31 May at 15:00 | Round 3 |
| Sunday | 1 June at 15:00 | Round 4 |
| Monday | 2 June at 15:00 | Round 5 |
| Tuesday | 3 June at 15:00 | Round 6 |
| Wednesday | 4 June at 15:00 | Round 7 |
| Thursday | 5 June at 15:00 | Round 8 |
| Friday | 6 June at 11:00 | Round 9 |
| Friday | 6 June at 18:00 | Closing Ceremony |
