KazChess Masters: Sarana Wins as Murzin Drops to Fifth

by ChessBase
12/2/2025 – Curious outcome: Although Alexey Sarana lost to both the runner-up and the third-placed player, he still secured victory at the KazChess Masters in Almaty by a full point. In a very strong field, the reigning World Rapid Champion Volodar Murzin entered the final two rounds as the favourite: after seven of nine rounds he was leading the standings with 5 points and a half-point advantage. But he lost the direct encounter with Sarana in round 8. Murzin also failed to win his last game, allowing Sarana to pull away. | Photo: Alexey Sarana at the Tata Steel Tournament 2025 | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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Half a point separated Volodar Murzin, who competed under the FIDE flag, from a three-player chasing group at the strong round-robin tournament in Almaty (Kazakhstan) with two rounds to go. Nobody would have expected him to finish only in fifth place. But two defeats set him back considerably. Nor would anyone, after seven rounds, have predicted that anyone other than Murzin would end up at the top with a one-point lead – yet that is exactly what happened: the Serbian GM Alexey Sarana first defeated Murzin in round 8 and then added another win against the Kazakh player Edgar Mamedov.

So you have to look twice at the final standings. It is rare for a tournament winner to finish a full point ahead of the players directly behind him despite losing to both of them – in this case Maksim Chigaev (Spain) and Kazybek Nogerbek (Uzbekistan). But Sarana’s impressive six wins earned the Elo favourite the title in this very strong event.

Final standings

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