Martirosyan hands Carlsen first loss in Total Chess Fast Classic in Budapest

Haik Martirosyan beat World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in Budapest on Friday, November 14, 2026, during the third day of the Fast Classic stage of the Total Chess World Championship Tour pilot; Martirosyan won with the white pieces and then drew the return game, leaving Carlsen winless after six games. Martirosyan moved to 10 points while Carlsen remained on five.

R. Vaishali recorded her first Fast Classic victory by recovering from an earlier loss to Bibisara Assaubayeva and winning their second encounter with an attack; the split results left Vaishali on four points and Assaubayeva on eight in Group D. Arjun Erigaisi overturned a difficult position to defeat Wesley So with black before drawing the return, taking his total to nine points and putting him level with Hans Niemann and three points behind Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

R. Praggnanandhaa drew both games against Vladislav Artemiev in Group B, with their first meeting lasting 89 moves; Praggnanandhaa had four points and Artemiev five after those results. Fabiano Caruana extended his unbeaten run in Group B by beating Vincent Keymer with black and drawing the second game; Caruana was on 14 points, four clear of Liem Le, who drew twice with Richard Rapport.

Martirosyan’s win over Carlsen pushed him one point ahead of Anish Giri; Giri followed a draw against Ian Nepomniachtchi with a win after a long battle. Ian Nepomniachtchi and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov each had seven points, while Mamedyarov drew twice against Abhimanyu Mishra, who sat on five points.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew his game against Hans Niemann before winning the return with White to reach 12 points; Wesley So had four. Vincent Keymer had four points and Richard Rapport five following their respective results against Caruana and Liem Le.

In Group A, Andrew Hong handed Alireza Firouzja his first group-stage defeat before Firouzja won their return meeting and retained the top spot with 11 points; Hong had six. Jan-Krzysztof Duda remained second on nine after two draws with Levon Aronian, who had seven, while Jorden van Foreest’s win over Nodirbek Abdusattorov and a subsequent draw took them to eight and five points respectively.

Games seven and eight follow, with each player having four group games remaining. (The writer is in Budapest at the invitation of Total Chess).