12/24/2025 – The 12th Sunway Sitges Chess Festival concluded with a closely contested open tournament in the Catalonian seaside town. After ten rounds, first place was shared before a blitz play-off decided the title, while an additional knockout determined third place. Iranian GM Mahdi Gholami Orimi emerged as overall winner, ahead of Spanish GM Josep Manuel López, with French GM Jules Moussard completing the podium. | Photo: David Llada / Sunway Sitges Chess Festival (2024)
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Gholami beats López in final playoff
The 12th edition of the Sunway Sitges Chess Festival concluded on Monday in Sitges, once again combining high-level competition with the relaxed coastal setting for which the event has become known. The main open tournament was played as a 10-round Swiss and attracted a field of 242 players representing 42 federations. Among them were 16 GMs and 25 IMs, underlining the event's strong international profile.
After ten rounds of play, first place was shared on points by two players, both finishing on 8/10. Iranian GM Mahdi Gholami Orimi, seeded seventh, and Spanish GM Josep Manuel López, the ninth seed, emerged at the top of the standings.
Going into the final round, Gholami was the sole leader on 7½ points, with a large, eight-player chasing group only half a point behind.
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In the decisive tenth round, Gholami opted for a solid approach with the white pieces and drew against top seed SL Narayanan, ensuring at least a share of first place. Among the eight players still in contention, only López managed to convert his chances, scoring a win with white against China's fifth seed Li Di to join Gholami at the top.
Tournament regulations required a two-game blitz play-off between Gholami and López to determine the overall winner. Gholami took the initiative by winning the first game with the black pieces, and then secured the title by holding a draw with white in the second encounter. This result crowned him champion of the 2025 Sunway Sitges Chess Tournament.
A separate blitz knockout was organised to decide third place. Eight players tied from third to tenth in the final standings on 7½/10 qualified for this playoff. French GM Jules Moussard, the tournament's third seed, navigated the blitz stage successfully and claimed the bronze medal to complete the podium.
After 10 intense rounds, the champion of the tournament had to be decided in a playoff, that also decided 3rd place among 6 players tied with half a point less than the 2 leaders. Amazing setup as usual thanks to #SunwaySitges team! pic.twitter.com/HYX6lD20Ze
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Let us learn together how to find the best spot for the queen in the early middlegame, how to navigate this piece around the board, how to time the queen attack, how to decide whether to exchange it or not, and much more!
Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos 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.
Tata Steel 2026 with analyses by Bluebaum, Giri, L'Ami, Woodward and many more. Opening videos by Kasimdzhanov, Marin and Zwirs. 10 exciting opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more.
In this course, Dutch Grandmaster Jan Werle presents a modern and practical repertoire in the French Advance Variation, focusing on the critical line 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3.
One of the major battlegrounds of the Queen’s Gambit Declined is the Catalan, and against it Zwirs chose an ambitious strategy: accept the pawn and hold onto it with …c6 and …b5, aiming for an unbalanced fight from the very start.
In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike to not giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game.
Opening videos: Daniel King presents new ideas against Caro-Kann with 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+. ‘Mikhalchishin's Miniatures’: Najdorf, Petroff and Scotch. ‘Move by Move’ with Robert Ris. ‘Lucky bag’ with 37 analyses by Ganguly, Illingworth et al.
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