Abhimanyu Mishra scores back-to-back 7½/9 results in Spain

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
4/18/2026 – Abhimanyu Mishra scored 7½/9 in consecutive open tournaments in Spain, finishing tied for first place both at the Semana Santa Open in Alicante and at the Menorca Open. The 17-year-old remained undefeated across both events, gaining 15.3 rating points in the process. His recent run brought him up to sixth place in the live ratings list among junior players. | Pictured: Star organiser Patricia Claros and Abhimanyu Mishra | Photo: Luis Barona / Semana Santa Open
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Second place in Alicante, first place in Menorca

Abhimanyu Mishra put together two notable performances in consecutive open tournaments in Spain. The 17-year-old from New Jersey scored 7½/9 both at the Semana Santa Open in Alicante and at the Menorca Open, finishing tied for first place in both events. Mishra, who still holds the record as the youngest grandmaster in history after qualifying for the title at the age of 12 years, 4 months and 25 days, remained undefeated in both tournaments.

At the Semana Santa Open, Mishra finished tied for first alongside Ukrainian GMs Igor Kovalenko and Vasyl Ivanchuk, with all three players scoring 7½ points. Kovalenko won the tournament on tiebreaks, while Mishra took second place and Ivanchuk finished third. Mishra had entered the event as one of the main favourites, as he was the second seed in the field.

The teenager then travelled to the Menorca Open, where he produced another undefeated run. This time, however, Mishra came out ahead on tiebreaks and won the tournament. He finished above Leon Luke Mendonca, Li Di and Tomás Sosa, who also ended the event on 7½ points. Mishra was ranked third in the starting list in Menorca, making him one of the pre-tournament favourites there as well.

Abhimanyu Mishra, Igor Kovalenko, Vasyl Ivanchuk

Igor Kovalenko, Abhimanyu Mishra and Vasyl Ivanchuk reached the podium at the Semana Santa Open | Photo: Luis Barona

Abhimanyu Mishra

Abhimanyu Mishra won the Open Chess Menorca | Photo: Official Facebook page

Taken together, the two Spanish tournaments gave Mishra an overall score of 15/18, with no losses to his name. The back-to-back performances brought him 15.3 rating points. That gain was enough to move him up to 83rd place in the live world rankings and to 6th place among junior players.

Following the tournaments, Mishra shared a post on X in which he highlighted not only his results in Alicante and Menorca, but also his strong showing at the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss. At that event, Mishra finished fifth with an undefeated 7/11 score after entering the tournament as only the 86th seed. In his post, he pointed to these performances as evidence that he is ready for invitations to closed tournaments and league competitions.

After achieving a 2828 performance at the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss, I had hoped 2026 would bring more invitations to top-level events. Unfortunately, despite reaching out to several organizers, no opportunities have materialized. As a result, I've been competing in open tournaments instead.

Over the past 15 days, I played in both the Semana Santa Open and the Menorca Open, winning each with a score of 7½/9.

To tournament organizers: I remain very interested in participating in strong closed events or leagues, and I would greatly appreciate any invitations. Please feel free to get in touch.

The post attracted attention from several notable figures in the chess world. Among those who shared it was former world champion Garry Kasparov, giving further visibility to Mishra's recent run of results.

Abhimanyu Mishra

Abhimanyu Mishra during round seven of the Semana Santa Open - he defeated Chinese IM Xie Kaifan with black, while Eduardo Iturrizaga, playing black on the adjacent board, only managed a draw against Mongolian IM Khuyagtsogt Itgelt | Photo: Patricia Claros

Final standings - Semana Santa Open

Rk. Name Pts. TB1
1 Kovalenko, Igor 7,5 0
2 Mishra, Abhimanyu 7,5 0
3 Ivanchuk, Vasyl 7,5 0
4 Bogdanov, Artyom 7 0
5 Putnam, Liam 7 0
6 Kozak, Adam 7 0
7 Fedorchuk, Sergey A. 7 0
8 Gloeckler, Christian 7 0
9 Baasansuren, Erdene 7 0
10 Piorun, Kacper 7 0
11 Petrovskiy, Vadym 7 0
12 Apaar, Saxena 7 0
13 Gan-Erdene, Sugar 7 0
14 Dotzer, Lukas 7 0
15 Peng, Li Min 7 0
16 Fiorito, Francisco 7 0
17 Vetokhin, Savva 7 0
18 Trigo Urquijo, Sergio 7 0
19 Fiorito, Joaquin 7 0
20 Amartuvshin, Ganzorig 7 0

...520 players

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Final standings - Menorca Open

Rk. Name Pts. TB1
1 Mishra Abhimanyu 7,5 49,5
2 Mendonca Leon Luke 7,5 48,5
3 Li Di 7,5 47,5
4 Sosa Tomas 7,5 45,5
5 Abdsattar Alisher 7 51,5
6 Wu Yixing 7 49
7 Shirov Alexei 7 44,5
8 Iniyan Pa 7 44,5
9 Fernandez Daniel Howard 7 43,5
10 Sankalp Gupta 7 42,5
11 Kuandykuly Danis 7 42,5
12 Abdisalimov Abdimalik 6,5 51
13 Agmanov Zhandos 6,5 49
14 Murzin Volodar 6,5 49
15 Begmuratov Khumoyun 6,5 48
16 Shankland Sam 6,5 48
17 Xiao Tong(Qd) 6,5 47
18 Brodowski Piotr 6,5 47
19 Prraneeth Vuppala 6,5 46,5
20 Pranav Anand 6,5 46,5

...394 players

All available games

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Topics: Abhimanyu Mishra, Menorca Open 2026, Open Semana Santa Alicante
Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
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