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Sardinia World Chess Festival 2025 Round 3: Leon Mendonca and Harshit Raja among 6 leaders

by Himank Ghosh - 29/04/2025

After the first 3 rounds of play at the Sardinia World Chess Festival, 6 players remain at the top with perfect score. Among the Indian players, Grandmaster Harshit Raja and Leon Mendonca are on a perfect 3/3 points! The 4 other players on 3/3 points are: GM Yahli Sokolovsky (2546), IM Loic Travadon (2451), GM Christopher Woojin Yoo (2588), and the homeboy GM Sonis Francesco (2576). Round 4 starts from 3 PM local time, 6:30 PM IST. Photo: Niklesh Jain

A perfect start for Leon and Harshit

Grandmaster Leon Mendonca played a brilliant game with the White pieces to defeat IM Raja Panjwani. This win brought him to 3/3 points!

GM Leon Mendonca (2643, IND) deep in thought before the start of his game against IM Raja Panjwani (2443,CAN). Photo: Niklesh Jain

Game of the Day: Raja's Tactical Miss and Leon's Perfect Calculation I Sardinia World Chess Festival | Video: ChessBase India

Grandmaster Harshit Raja made quick work of his opponent GM Nurlan Ibrayev with the White pieces,defeating him in just 29 moves. With this win, he is also on 3/3 points!

Grandmaster Harshit Raja (2474) just grabbed material and converted his advantage comfortably against GM Nurlan Ibrayev (2367, KAZ). Photo: Niklesh Jain

Harshit Raja's game analysis + interview on Hindi ChessBase India with Niklesh Jain

From commentary to Grandmaster mode - Harshit Raja on 3/3 at Sardinia World Chess Festival 2025 | Video: ChessBase India

The Italian National Champion and top Italian seed at the Sardinia World Chess Festival, GM Francesco Sonis smoothly outplayed his opponent IM Marius Fromm with the Black pieces to join the leaders pack with 3/3 points!

GM Francesco Sonis (2576, ITA) en route to defeat IM Marius Fromm (2436, GER) | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Grandmaster SL Narayanan is back to winning ways! After a draw in the 1st round - he has won the next two games. In Round 3, SL defeated IM Ilias Van Der Lende with the Black pieces! SL Narayanan is on 2.5/3 points now.

GM SL Narayanan (2601, IND) deep in thought against IM Ilias Van Der Lende (2410, NED). | Photo: Margherita

GM Christopher Yoo (2588, USA) managed to outwit his opponent FM Roy Vagman (2437,ISR) to join the leaders with 3/3 | Photo: Margherita

FM Adharsh K (2317, IND) showed great resillience to hold a draw against top Ukranian youngster Ihor Samuenkov (2572)!

Replay all the Round 3 Games

Open-A Standings after Round 3

Rk.

SNo

 

Name

FED

Rtg

Pts.

 TB1 

 TB2 

 TB3 

 TB4 

K

rtg+/-

1

2

GM

Mendonca, Leon Luke

IND

2643

3

3

5,5

5,50

2322

10

4,7

2

12

GM

Raja, Harshit

IND

2474

3

3

5,5

5,50

2251

10

6,9

3

9

GM

Sokolovsky, Yahli

ISR

2546

3

3

5

5,00

2270

10

5,4

4

16

IM

Travadon, Loic

FRA

2451

3

3

5

5,00

2198

10

5,9

5

4

GM

Yoo, Christopher Woojin

USA

2588

3

3

4,5

4,50

2309

10

5,6

6

5

GM

Sonis, Francesco

ITA

2576

3

3

4,5

4,50

2303

10

5,7

7

28

FM

Bettalli, Francesco

ITA

2355

2,5

3

5,5

4,25

2393

20

23,2

8

14

IM

Martinovici, Ilia

MDA

2459

2,5

3

5,5

4,25

2238

10

2,1

9

21

IM

Favaloro, Andrea

ITA

2422

2,5

3

5

4,25

2155

10

0,3

10

15

IM

Admiraal, Miguoel

NED

2454

2,5

3

5

4,00

2175

10

0

11

8

GM

Amar, Elham

NOR

2546

2,5

3

4,5

3,25

2282

10

0,7

12

23

IM

Yaniv, Yuval

ISR

2407

2,5

3

4,5

3,25

2246

10

4,6

13

27

IM

Kiolbasa, Oliwia

POL

2361

2,5

3

4,5

3,25

2181

10

4

14

7

GM

Lodici, Lorenzo

ITA

2570

2,5

3

4

3,25

2119

10

-2,6

15

13

GM

Knaak, Rainer

GER

2472

2,5

3

4

2,75

2239

10

1,6

Round 4 Pairings for Open-A

Bo.

No.

 

White

Gr

Rtg

Pts.

Result

Pts.

Black

Gr

Rtg

 

No.

1

9

GM

Sokolovsky, Yahli

2546

3

3

GM

Mendonca, Leon Luke

2643

2

2

12

GM

Raja, Harshit

2474

3

3

GM

Yoo, Christopher Woojin

2588

4

3

5

GM

Sonis, Francesco

2576

3

3

IM

Travadon, Loic

2451

16

4

3

GM

Narayanan S, L

2601

2½

2½

IM

Admiraal, Miguoel

2454

15

5

7

GM

Lodici, Lorenzo

2570

2½

2½

FM

Bettalli, Francesco

2355

28

6

21

IM

Favaloro, Andrea

2422

2½

2½

GM

Amar, Elham

2546

8

7

13

GM

Knaak, Rainer

2472

2½

2½

IM

Kiolbasa, Oliwia

2361

27

8

23

IM

Yaniv, Yuval

2407

2½

2½

IM

Martinovici, Ilia

2459

14

9

1

GM

Dardha, Daniel

2650

2

2

FM

Kalosha, Zhiulien Oleksii

2315

32

10

33

FM

Xu, Grant

2304

2

2

GM

Samunenkov, Ihor

2572

6

11

37

FM

Haver, Bas

2281

2

2

GM

Moroni, Luca Jr

2545

10

12

11

GM

Stocek, Jiri

2492

2

2

FM

Urbani, Gabriel

2277

38

13

17

IM

Lumachi, Gabriele

2443

2

2

FM

Perossa, Nicolas

2274

40

14

18

IM

Panjwani, Raja

2443

2

2

FM

Zakin, Ilay

2254

43

15

19

FM

Vagman, Roy

2437

2

2

FM

Hercegovac, Neven

2238

45

Check all the details here

Round 3 Livestream: Leon Mendonca (2646, IND) vs Raja (2443, CAN) | Sardinia World Chess Festival 2025 | Video: Hindi ChessBase India

Round 3 Livestream: IM Marius Vs GM Sonis Francesco I Sardinia world chess festival 2025! | Video: UniChess Italy

Photo and video Gallery

Official Facebook album link

The legendary Grandmaster Oleg Romanishin in action! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Young Gabriele Porisini (1453, ITA) deep in thought! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

All the players deep in thought, fully focused| Photo: Niklesh Jain

Official YouTube playlist link

Italy's latest IM takes down 2650 GM! | Daniel Dardha vs Francesco Bettalli | Sardinia Chess 2025 | Video: ChessBase India

"I like my chances to win here!" | Grandmaster Leon Mendonca at Sardinia World Chess Festival 2025 | Video: ChessBase India

14-year-old tries to outprepare GM Harshit Raja | Zakin vs Harshit | Sardinia Open 2025 | Video: ChessBase India

Beach Chess Challenge and Vlog from Sardinia! | Solve with Niklesh Jain | Video: Hindi ChessBase India

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