Aditya Mittal Finishes Joint First at Chess Slovak Open Skalica 2026

India's GM Aditya Mittal finished joint first and unbeaten at the Chess Slovak Open Skalica 2026 Masters with 5.5/9, level with Abhimanyu Mishra and Daniel Dardha.

India's GM Aditya Mittal has finished at the top of the Masters round-robin at the Chess Slovak Open Skalica 2026. Aditya scored 5.5 points from 9 games without losing a single game, and he shared first place with American GM Abhimanyu Mishra and Belgian GM Daniel Dardha, who also scored 5.5. Aditya was placed first on tiebreak in the final standings.

The Skalica Masters was a 10-player round-robin in Slovakia, played at a classical time control. Every player in the field was a grandmaster, so there were no easy games.

Aditya won two games and drew seven. His most important win came in round 8, in an all-Indian game against GM Leon Luke Mendonca, the second seed. Aditya won with the black pieces in 70 moves of the Semi-Tarrasch Defense. In the final round he drew quickly with GM Jergus Pechac.

Abhimanyu Mishra joined the lead with a final-round win against GM Alexandr Fier, and Dardha also won his last game to make it a three-way tie.

Going through a grandmaster round-robin without a loss is a big achievement. It shows strong preparation, careful defence and patience. Many of Aditya's draws came against higher-rated players, including Mishra, Navara and Donchenko.

There is a useful lesson here. In a strong round-robin, not losing is just as important as winning. Seven draws and two wins were enough to finish first. Students sometimes think a draw is a disappointing result, but against strong opponents a draw is valuable, especially when you make sure you also take your winning chances.

It was another strong international result for Indian chess this summer, after victories by Indian players in Brasov and at the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz and Grand Chess Tour Finals.

Congratulations to Aditya Mittal on an excellent tournament.