Azerbaijani chess grandmaster Shakhriyar Mammadyarov has played his opening matches in the group stage of the Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot 2026 in Budapest, Hungary.

Axar.az reports that the grandmaster, who is competing in Group C, faced Armenian chess player Haik Martirosyan.

The two players drew 1-1 in their two games. Martirosyan, playing with the white pieces, lost the first game to Mamedyarov. However, the Armenian grandmaster, playing with the black pieces, won the return game.

It should be noted that Group C also features world number one Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Anish Giri and Abhimanyu Mishra.