India's Malayali GM Nihal Sarin had a strong finish to the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 as he held French Super GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to a draw in the final round at Samarkand in Uzbekistan on Monday.

Nihal was tied on 7 points with 13 others, including India No 2 Arjun Erigaisi and 2712-rated Vidit Gujrathi. Erigaisi held Vincent Keymer to a draw, while Gujrathi split a point with American GM Abhimanyu Mishra.

Dutch No 1 Anish Giri took the title on 8 points following a thrilling win over Hans Niemann. The Grand Swiss title has earned him a spot in the Candidates Tournament that will decide the challenger for World Champion D Gukesh.

Meanwhile, Gukesh ended the event with consecutive wins to finish on 6 points. A hat-trick of defeats between rounds 5 and 7 had ended Gukesh's chances. Draws with Divya Deshmukh and Robert Hovhannisyan did not help the World Champion in his bid to recover, but he managed to win the penultimate and final round games against Gabriel Sargissian and Andrei Volokitin respectively.

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GM Divya maintained her fine form to secure a draw against another 2600-plus-rated player in Ivan Cheparinov in the final round. With two wins and six draws, all against 2600-plus GMs, the 2478-rated reigning World Cup-winner finished her race on an impressive 5 points.

GM S L Narayanan, the second Kerala-based player in the event, stayed unbeaten to finish on 6 points. He held Turkish prodigy Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus to a draw in the final round. Thiruvananthapuram native Narayanan scored one win and ten draws in the 11-round event.

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