Sigeman 2026 Round 4: 14-Year-Old Erdogmus Takes Sole Lead After Van Foreest Stuns Carlsen

The five-way tie lasted exactly one round. Three decisive games in Round 4 shook up the standings at TePe Sigeman Chess 2026, and the player standing alone at the top is the one few expected: 14-year-old Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, who beat Grandelius to reach 3/4.

Carlsen suffered his first loss of the tournament, going down to Jorden van Foreest in an 88-move Najdorf that will go down as one of the wildest games of 2026. Zhu Jiner beat Andy Woodward for her first win. Only the Abdusattorov-Erigaisi clash between leaders was drawn.

Round 4 Results

Van Foreest-Carlsen: 88 Moves of Chaos

This was the game nobody could look away from. Van Foreest exchanged queens on move 9 in the Najdorf Amsterdam Variation, leading to a complex middlegame where he won the exchange. By move 23, van Foreest had a rook for a knight and pawn, with Carlsen's a-pawn providing some compensation.

Carlsen burned through his clock in the early middlegame, spending nearly 50 minutes on a single move (10...Be6), and found himself with under 2 minutes when the critical phase began. Around move 28 both players started trading mistakes: Carlsen played 28...Ke7? but van Foreest missed the best response with 29.Ra7+?.

After the time control, both players had fresh clocks and the evaluation hovered around +1.5 to +2.0 for White. Then came the chaos. Van Foreest blundered with 53.Bd2??, dropping the evaluation from +2.3 to 0.0 in one move. Carlsen instantly equalized with 53...Nfxg2, and the game seemed headed for a draw.

But both players were running on fumes. What followed was one of the most error-filled endgames you'll see at this level:

• Move 64: Carlsen blundered with 64...Nd4?? (+3.7)
• Move 66: Van Foreest gave it back with 66.Rd7?? (0.2)
• Move 66: Carlsen returned the favor with 66...Nc3?? (+4.7)
• Move 73: Van Foreest blundered again with 73.Ke6?? (0.0)
• Move 79: Carlsen played 79...Na3?? (+4.1)
• Move 85: Van Foreest blundered yet again with 85.Ra2?? (0.1)
• Move 86: Carlsen's final mistake, 86...Na3?? - this time the evaluation jumped to +81.

Seven major blunders in the endgame. The position swung between winning and drawn four separate times. Van Foreest converted after Carlsen's last blunder left his knight trapped, and Carlsen resigned on move 88.

It's the kind of game that makes classical chess both maddening and utterly compelling. For van Foreest, the win pushes him to 2.5/4 and into a tie for second. For Carlsen, it's a rare classical loss and drops him to 2/4, a full point behind Erdogmus.

Erdogmus Clinically Dispatches Grandelius

The youngest 2700 player in history continues to look like the real deal. In a Ruy Lopez Classical, Erdogmus maintained a small edge through the middlegame. After queens were exchanged on move 20, the resulting endgame looked close to equal.

Grandelius went wrong with 25...cxd6? when 25...Rxd6 was necessary, and Erdogmus's centralized knights immediately became dominant. Time trouble sealed Grandelius's fate: 29...Rc2?? was a blunder that allowed 30.Re7+ with devastating effect, and 31...Rd1?? walked into a forced checkmate. Erdogmus finished the job cleanly with 33.Nf8, when mate is unavoidable.

Erdogmus's live rating has pushed past 2715, ranking him among the world's top 25. His tournament performance rating through four rounds is well above 2800.

Grandelius is now 0/4, the only player without a point. On home soil in Malmö, in front of the Swedish crowd, this has been a tournament to forget.

Zhu Jiner Bounces Back Against Woodward

After a rough start with a Round 1 loss and a draw, Zhu found her form against Woodward's Najdorf. The women's World No. 2 built a big advantage early: Woodward's inaccurate 10...Bxd5?! and 11...Nb4?! left White with a lasting structural advantage.

By move 15 the engine was already showing +3.0, and the position only got worse for Woodward. Zhu won the b-pawn with 20.Rxb7, and Woodward's exchange sacrifice on c3 proved insufficient compensation. The game ended in 37 moves when Zhu's passed c-pawn proved unstoppable.

A morale-boosting result for Zhu, who climbs to 1.5/4. For Woodward, dropping from the five-way tie for first to 2/4 in a single round is a painful setback.

Abdusattorov Presses But Can't Break Erigaisi

The clash of leaders was the most controlled game of the round. Abdusattorov built a significant advantage in a Queen's Gambit Declined after Erigaisi's 17...Nf6?! gave White a +1.8 edge. But the Uzbek defending champion couldn't find the right plan to convert, and his inaccurate 22.Nxb7?! let Erigaisi simplify into a rook endgame.

A long grind followed: 62 moves of rook maneuvering with ever-diminishing winning chances. The draw keeps both players at 2.5/4, half a point behind Erdogmus.

Standings After Round 4

Looking Ahead

With three rounds left, Erdogmus holds a half-point lead over three pursuers. The 14-year-old has been the tournament's breakout star, winning both his games with Black and drawing both with White.

Carlsen needs to find wins in the remaining rounds to catch up. The world No. 1 has now lost two games in classical chess in the space of just four rounds, a rare occurrence for a player of his caliber.

The Grand Chess Tour Super Rapid & Blitz kicks off its rapid portion in Warsaw on May 5, with the highly anticipated first meeting between World Champion Gukesh and challenger Sindarov.

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