Fujairah Superstars: Pranav and Sjugirov take the lead

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
8/29/2025 – Round five of the Fujairah Global Chess Championship's Superstars tournament ended with Sanan Sjugirov and Pranav Venkatesh moving into joint first place on 4 points. Sjugirov defeated fellow Hungarian Gleb Dudin, while Pranav beat Mexico's José Martínez Alcántara in a sharp encounter (pictured). A five-player chasing pack trails just half a point behind, including Zhu Jiner, who drew with Aydin Suleymanli to continue her consistent run. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
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Two co-leaders, five chasers

The fifth round of the Superstars tournament in Fujairah saw two players emerging as joint leaders on 4 points from 5 games. Sanan Sjugirov and Pranav Venkatesh both secured victories to separate themselves from the rest of the field, while a broad chasing group remains only half a point behind.

Sjugirov, representing Hungary, defeated his compatriot Gleb Dudin with the black pieces to reach the leading score. Meanwhile, India's Pranav Venkatesh continued his excellent form by overcoming Mexico's number one, José Martínez Alcántara, in a sharp encounter. 

Pranav 1-0 Martínez

Analysis by Stefan Liebig

Close behind on 3½ points is a group of players that includes Zhu Jiner, who drew with Azerbaijan’s Aydin Suleymanli to extend her steady run. Zhu, the only female competitor in the Superstars event, has impressed with mature positional play, confirming her ability to contend in such a strong field. Also on 3½ points are Brandon Jacobson, Andrew Hong and Amin Tabatabaei, each of whom kept themselves in contention for the latter stages.

Elsewhere, India's Raunak Sadhwani and Aditya Mittal created promising winning chances in their games against Andrew Hong and Nikolas Theodorou respectively, but could not convert them into full points. In another closely watched game, Pranesh M held top seed Nihal Sarin to a draw, with Nihal managing to avoid a difficult situation.

Zhu Jiner

Zhu Jiner continues to impress | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Standings after round 5

Rk. Name Pts.  TB1 
1 SJUGIROV, Sanan 4 14,5
2 PRANAV, V 4 14,5
3 SULEYMANLI, Aydin 3,5 16
4 JACOBSON, Brandon 3,5 16
5 HONG, Andrew 3,5 14,5
6 ZHU, Jiner 3,5 13
7 TABATABAEI, M. Amin 3,5 12,5
8 MARTINEZ ALCANTARA, Jose Eduardo 3 14
9 MISHRA, Abhimanyu 3 14
10 DUDIN, Gleb 3 14
11 CHEPARINOV, Ivan 3 13,5
12 ADITYA, Mittal 3 13
13 SADHWANI, Raunak 3 12,5
14 SHANKLAND, Sam 3 12
15 THEODOROU, Nikolas 3 11,5
16 DANESHVAR, Bardiya 3 11
17 ZEMLYANSKII, Ivan 2,5 14,5
18 MOTYLEV, Alexander 2,5 14
19 MURADLI, Mahammad 2,5 13,5
20 PICHOT, Alan 2,5 13,5
21 GREBNEV, Aleksey 2,5 13
22 PRANESH, M 2,5 13
23 NIHAL, Sarin 2,5 12,5
24 BHARATH, Subramaniyam H 2,5 12,5
25 SALEM, A.R. Saleh 2,5 12

...44 players

All games - Superstars

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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.