2/4/2025 – Indian FM Vedant Panesar scored an unbeaten 6/9 to win the Tata Steel Chess Qualifiers 2025. This triumph earned him a place in the Challengers section of the 2026 edition. He finished a half point ahead of the field. FM Leandro Slagboom and FM Tim Grutter, both from the Netherlands, scored 5½/9 each. They secured second and third place respectively. The top three prizes were New in Chess book vouchers worth €90, €60 and €40 each respectively. More than the prize fund, advancing to the Challengers is a big deal for the champion. Photo: Lennart Ootes / Tata Steel Chess
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Vedant secures spot in Challengers 2026
Vedant Panesar has fulfilled all the criteria to receive the IM title. However, he did not want to claim it. He directly wants to get the GM title once he earns it. In the post-tournament interview, he mentioned that he probably earned his 14th IM norm here.
It was not only his first tournament in 2025 but also his first time in Wijk aan Zee and the Netherlands. He definitely had a great debut and would like to get back next year as a GM in the Challengers section.
Doesn’t every chess game get decided by mistakes? Absolutely. But most players never truly comprehend that they are making the same kind of mistakes over and over again.
The Qualifiers' champion entered the tournament as the second seed, only behind Dutch IM Nico Zwirs. Vedant scores three wins and six draws for a 6/9 score, leaving Dutch FMs Leandro Slagboom and Tim Grutter tied for second place with 5½ points each. Slagboom entered the final round sharing the lead with Vedant, but lost his game with the black pieces against his compatriot Kobe Smeets.
Interview with Vedant Panesar | Video: Tata Steel Chess Tournament
Tudor v. Vedant (round 7)
Vedant's favourite game of the tournament was his round-7 encounter against 2375-rated Romanian FM Henry Edward Tudor. Vedant mentioned in the post-tournament interview that he set up a stalemate trick 15 moves before it actually happened.
White is winning in the above position. However, he needed to be careful - 50.g4?? allowed White to fall into the stalemate combination 50...Rf1+ 51.Kg2 R5f2+ 52.Kg3 Rf3+!
The rooks are a liability for Black, as getting rid of them earns him a half point.
53.Rxf3 Rxf3+ 54.Kh4 Rh3+ (diagram) 55.Kxh3 and it's a draw due to stalemate.
No wonder it is Vedant's favourite, despite him being lost for the majority of the game.
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Shahid AhmedShahid Ahmed is the senior coordinator and editor of ChessBase India. He enjoys covering chess tournaments and also likes to play in chess events from time to time.
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Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains a total of 11 766 games from Mega 2026 or the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 1136 are annotated.
For the Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbook 2026 the ratings average was set again at 2400. 2.24 million games from the engine room of playchess.com met this threshold, to which were added over 130 000 games played by humans.
In this volume, we dive into core aspects of chess technique. Smyslov taught the principle of tactical hierarchy, “checks, double attacks, and unprotected pieces”, and Mikhalchishin demonstrates how this method of calculation is vital.
Videos: Nico Zwirs examines two Petroffs from the 2026 Candidates. Robert Ris has a tip against the Caro-Kann Advance Variation with 3…c5. Fiona Sieber reveals a surprise weapon against the Najdorf. ‘Lucky Bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, L'Ami et al.
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