The group stage of the international Total Chess Pilot 2026 tournament has concluded in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, with Kazakhstan's Bibisara Assaubayeva advancing to the playoffs, where she will face former world champion Magnus Carlsen, infohub.kz reports.
In the fifth and final round, Assaubayeva played two games against French grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, losing the first and drawing the second.
The result left the Kazakh player fifth in Group D with ten points, on two wins, four draws and four losses. In the final standings, Assaubayeva finished ahead of only Indian player Vaishali Rameshbabu.
Under the tournament regulations, the winners of the four groups — Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, his compatriot Alireza Firouzja, American Fabiano Caruana and Dutchman Anish Giri — will continue the fight for the title.
The remaining players form playoff groups of four according to their group-stage placings. Assaubayeva will therefore compete for 17th to 20th place against the grandmasters who also finished fifth in their groups.
In the opening round of the playoffs, the Kazakh player will face Norway's Magnus Carlsen, a former world champion and one of the most decorated chess players in history. In the group stage he drew nine games and lost one. Their bracket also includes American Andrew Hong and Russia's Vladislav Artemiev, who is competing under a neutral status.
"Today I drew the first game and lost the second. I blundered, I got tired... Tomorrow is the long-awaited day off, and then the match with Magnus. You know, before the tournament my parents asked me whether I would play him. And I said no. Both I and many others expected him to come out first or second, or at most third, and that it would be hard for me to end up in the same group as him. I came out fifth, and so did he," Assaubayeva said on her Telegram channel.
The Total Chess Pilot 2026 playoffs will run from November 17 to 20.