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The first day of the Playoffs in the Chess.com Classic concluded with four players advancing to the semifinals of the Winners Bracket. Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Ian Nepomniachtchi all progressed after winning two consecutive matches.
Much like in the inaugural event of this year's Champions Chess Tour, a 10-minute time control without increments is in place. In the event of a tied match, an Armageddon tiebreak decides who wins the match.
Sixteen players reached this stage - eight by direct invitation and eight through qualification in the Play-In. All players began in the Winners Bracket and played a four-game round-of-16 match. Only two of these initial matches required an Armageddon decider. Nakamura narrowly defeated Levon Aronian in tiebreaks, while Nepomniachtchi advanced over Arjun Erigaisi after holding a draw with the black pieces. A standout result came from Vladimir Fedoseev, who defeated world champion Gukesh Dommaraju 3–1.
In the quarterfinals, Carlsen, Nakamura and Abdusattorov all won their matches with a game to spare, dispatching Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Ding Liren and Wei Yi to the Losers Bracket, respectively. The closest match of the round saw Nepomniachtchi once again prevail in Armageddon, this time against Fedoseev.
Notably, in their third game, Nepomniachtchi overlooked a mate-in-one. At that point, Fedoseev had only 1 second on the clock to his opponent's 20. Since there is no increment in this event, Nepo would have surely flagged Fedoseev. The Russian GM laughed on camera after this curious incident - a case of selfmate which only happens at this level in games with no increments!
Nepomniachtchi can't help but smile as he allows a self-checkmate, when Fedoseev had one second on the clock!https://t.co/DtgIRRfSdj#ChessChamps pic.twitter.com/ztRe8gP8kO
— chess24 (@chess24com) May 20, 2025
The eight players who lost a match dropped into the Losers Bracket, where matches were shorter (played to the best-of-two) with Armageddon used if tied.
Four players were eliminated. Among them was world champion Gukesh, who lost to Arjun Erigaisi in an all-Indian clash. Also knocked out were Jan-Krzysztof Duda (defeated by Fabiano Caruana), Denis Lazavik (beaten by Vladislav Artemiev) and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (eliminated by Levon Aronian).
Remaining in contention via the Losers Bracket are Fedoseev, Caruana, Ding, Artemiev, Wei, Aronian, Vachier-Lagrave and Arjun. These players now have no margin for error, as a further loss would end their run in the tournament.
