Nikolas Theodorou wins the London Super Rapid

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15th XTX Markets London Chess Classic 2025 (Rapid)

Nikolas Theodorou wins the London Super Rapid

Mark Crowther - Monday 8th December 2025

Nikolas Theodorou winner of the Super Rapid. Photo John Saunders:

Nikolas Theodorou winner of the Super Rapid. Photo John Saunders: | https://www.londonchessclassic.com

The 15th XTX Markets London Chess Classic concluded with the Super Rapidplay over the final weekend. All of the players who featured in the Elite tournament also played the rapid and most of them were in the final shakeup.

Nikolas Theodorou emerged as a clear winner with a fantastic 9/10 score, run to the title was: win against Luke McShane, win against Leinier Dominguez, draw against Alireza Firouzja and then win against Nodirbek Abdusattorov in Round 10.

Theodorou was born in Athens in 2000 and is 25 years old. He is Greece's top player and is at a career high right now having passed 2650 for the first time. He's been a GM since 2021.

A strange post-script was that on the final day of the Super Rapid Nikita Vitiugov was also down as playing in the German Bundesliga for Baden-Baden (I notice now that Fabiano Caruana was put down as top board on Saturday, again a default, as he is in South Africa). Turns out that Baden-Baden could only raise 7 players out of a squad of 18, everyone else was busy. Now I don't know if what they did was within the rules (pushing down the rest of the players in the team and not wasting a white was the motivation, pretty standard stuff if you've ever played in a team that struggles for numbers but often directly regualated against) but they clearly knew he wasn't coming. Baden-Baden got a draw out of the match in the end (and a win on Saturday).

The final round of the Elite tournament saw five draws. Abdusattorov had already sealed his victory and his margin was two points over second placed Alireza Firouzja.

15th LCC Super Rapid 2025 London ENG Wed 26th Nov 2025 - Sun 7th Dec 2025 Leading Final Round 10 Standings:
Rk	SNo	Name	Ti	Rtg	Pts
1	11	Theodorou, Nikolas	GM	2581	9
2	1	Firouzja, Alireza	GM	2754	8.5
3	3	Dominguez Perez, Leinier	GM	2703	8
4	6	Adams, Michael	GM	2629	8
5	8	Vitiugov, Nikita	GM	2609	8
6	10	Eljanov, Pavel	GM	2594	8
7	20	Rozen, Eytan	IM	2449	8
8	24	Pranav, Anand	GM	2421	8
9	2	Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	GM	2717	7.5
10	7	Maroroa Jones, Gawain	GM	2619	7.5
11	9	Mishra, Abhimanyu	GM	2600	7.5
12	17	Kovchan, Alexander	GM	2463	7.5
13	18	Shetty, Atulya	IM	2455	7.5
14	22	Golubka, Petro	GM	2433	7.5
15	23	Aghayev, Miragha	IM	2424	7.5
16	29	Bazakutsa, Svyatoslav	IM	2401	7.5
17	30	Gasanov, Eldar	GM	2397	7.5
18	36	Stefanova, Antoaneta	GM	2379	7.5
19	45	Cancedda-Dupuis, Livio		2319	7.5
20	4	McShane, Luke J	GM	2668	7
21	5	Shankland, Samuel L	GM	2634	7
22	12	Jumabayev, Rinat	GM	2543	7
23	16	Gordon, Stephen J	GM	2474	7
24	25	Aizenberg, Benny	IM	2418	7
25	26	Rendle, Thomas E	IM	2415	7
26	27	Tulchynskyi, Feliks	IM	2409	7
27	32	Roebers, Eline	IM	2392	7
28	33	Badacsonyi, Stanley	FM	2390	7
29	42	Haydon, David L	FM	2329	7
30	44	Tica, Sven	IM	2327	7
31	51	Makkar, Rajat	IM	2275	7
32	56	Mahadevan, Siva	IM	2241	7
33	64	Noy, Eyal	FM	2190	7
34	76	Banerjee, Supratit	FM	2144	7
35	77	Josse, Mark	CM	2135	7
36	78	Bonn, Thomas B		2134	7
37	135	Santhosh, Abhyuday	CM	1953	7
38	13	Jankovic, Alojzije	GM	2505	6.5
39	14	Ghasi, Ameet K	GM	2497	6.5
40	15	Yuffa, Daniil	GM	2487	6.5
41	19	Iniyan, P	GM	2450	6.5
42	28	Emms, John M	GM	2407	6.5
43	31	Royal, Shreyas	GM	2393	6.5
44	34	Bulmaga, Irina	IM	2388	6.5
45	39	Timmermans, Mark	IM	2355	6.5
46	41	Tayar, Jonathan	IM	2337	6.5
47	43	Czopor, Maciej	IM	2327	6.5
48	47	Hunt, Harriet V	IM	2297	6.5
49	48	Grutter, Tim	IM	2291	6.5
50	54	Lohia, Sohum	IM	2257	6.5
320 players

15th London Classic Elite London (ENG), 26 xi-7 xii 2025															cat. XVII (2668)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
1.	Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	g	UZB	2750	*	½	1	1	1	½	1	½	1	1	7½	2931
2.	Firouzja, Alireza	g	FRA	2762	½	*	½	½	1	1	½	½	½	½	5½	2737
3.	Vitiugov, Nikita	g	ENG	2657	0	½	*	½	½	1	½	½	½	1	5	2711
4.	Adams, Michael	g	ENG	2635	0	½	½	*	½	½	½	½	½	1	4½	2671
5.	McShane, Luke J	g	ENG	2615	0	0	½	½	*	½	1	1	½	½	4½	2673
6.	Eljanov, Pavel	g	UKR	2656	½	0	0	½	½	*	½	1	½	½	4	2626
7.	Theodorou, Nikolas	g	GRE	2656	0	½	½	½	0	½	*	1	½	½	4	2626
8.	Maroroa Jones, Gawain C B	g	ENG	2655	½	½	½	½	0	0	0	*	1	½	3½	2589
9.	Mishra, Abhimanyu	g	USA	2642	0	½	½	½	½	½	½	0	*	½	3½	2590
10.	Shankland, Sam	g	USA	2649	0	½	0	0	½	½	½	½	½	*	3	2544

Round 9 (December 5, 2025)
Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	- Eljanov, Pavel	½-½	61	C55	Two Knights Defence
Vitiugov, Nikita	- Maroroa Jones, Gawain C B	½-½	30	C78	Ruy Lopez Moeller Defence
Theodorou, Nikolas	- Firouzja, Alireza	½-½	43	A07	Barcza System
Mishra, Abhimanyu	- Adams, Michael	½-½	35	C53	Giuoco Piano
Shankland, Sam	- McShane, Luke J	½-½	90	C79	Ruy Lopez Russian Defence

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