The third edition of the President Cup took place on 21-28 November in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. A total of 250 players participated in two open tournaments, mostly from the host country. The A-Open was reserved for players rated above 2250 Elo and included several notable international grandmasters.
The tournament was conducted over 9 rounds using the Swiss system. The time control was 90 minutes for the entire game plus a 30-second increment per move for the entire game. The total prize fund amounted to 75,000 USD.
Going into the final round, 20-year-old GM Nihal Sarin had a full-point lead over a 7-player chasing pack. In his final game of the tournament, he was paired up against top seed Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Nihal has a good score against Abdusattorov in classical rated games (3-2 in the Indian's favour). Recently they played two rapid games at the Tata Steel India Tournament, and both ended in draws, while Nihal won the one blitz rated game that ended decisively at the same event. So Nihal was certainly confident about his chances to win the tournament. He played solid chess, drew the game and became the champion.
Nihal's splendid performance received high praise from the only two-time World Cup winner in history, GM Levon Aronian, who shared on X:
Nihalevski is clearly underrated, and belongs to the great generation of Indian talents. Everybody has their own pace.
The Indian rising star ended the event with 7½ points and a sensational 2809 TPR. Javokhir Sindarov, Parham Maghsoodloo and Shamsiddin Vokhidov scored 7/9 points each. They secured second, third and fourth places respectively, according to tiebreaks.
Nihal Sarin
Shamsiddin Vokhidov
Nodirbek Abdusattorov
From left to right: Mihail Nikitenko, Karthikeyan Murali, Neelash Saha and Ortik Nigmatov
| Rk. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | Nihal, Sarin | 2676 | 7,5 | 0 | |
| 2 | GM | Sindarov, Javokhir | 2682 | 7 | 0 | |
| 3 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | 2712 | 7 | 0 | |
| 4 | GM | Vokhidov, Shamsiddin | 2681 | 7 | 0 | |
| 5 | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 2777 | 6,5 | 0 | |
| 6 | GM | Yakubboev, Nodirbek | 2668 | 6,5 | 0 | |
| 7 | IM | Nigmatov, Ortik | 2447 | 6 | 0 | |
| 8 | IM | Neelash, Saha | 2458 | 6 | 0 | |
| 9 | GM | Karthikeyan, Murali | 2625 | 6 | 0 | |
| 10 | GM | Nikitenko, Mihail | 2490 | 6 | 0 | |
| 11 | IM | Saydaliev, Saidakbar | 2473 | 6 | 0 | |
| 12 | GM | Gareyev, Timur | 2552 | 6 | 0 | |
| 13 | GM | Pranesh, M | 2580 | 6 | 0 | |
| 14 | IM | Nitish, Belurkar | 2434 | 6 | 0 | |
| 15 | IM | Suyarov, Mukhammadzokhid | 2464 | 6 | 0 |
