Chennai Grand Masters: D Gukesh suffers second loss, Sarin beats Arjun Erigais

World champion D Gukesh suffered his second straight defeat at the Chennai Grand Masters after losing to GM M Pranesh, while GM Nihal Sarin defeated compatriot Arjun Erigaisi in the penultimate round of the tournament on Tuesday.

Erigaisi’s defeat gave French GM Alirez Firouzja sole lead in the standings after the top seed drew his Round 6 match against GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Firouzja now has four points, while Erigaisi and Abdusattorov are tied for second place with 3.5 points to advance to the final round.

Hosted by MGD1, the eight-player tournament is played in a round-robin format and offers a purse of Rs 75 crore along with valuable FIDE Circuit points.

After Narendra Kumar, Managing Trustee of Chola Foundation, and WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy took the ceremonial first step, it looked like Gukesh could finally open his account with a victory. However, the reigning world champion made more than one mistake in his calculations, allowing Pranesh to capitalize and register his first win in the competition in just 39 moves.

The win was also Pranesh’s first win of the tournament, while Gukesh remained on 1.5 points after six rounds.

Erigaisi only needed a draw against Nihal Sarin to stay level with Firouzja at the top of the table. For most of the match, the result seemed to be going that way before Nihal pulled off a brilliant rook sacrifice that tipped the balance decisively in his favour. Erigaisi had no way back and resigned after 60 moves.

The result lifted Nihal to three points and left the title race wide open heading into the seventh and final round.

In the other matches of the day, Hans Niemann and Dmitry Andreikin played to a draw, while Abdusattorov and Firouzja also split the points, allowing the French Grandmaster to take the sole lead.

Results of the 6th round:

GM Hans Niemann (2.5) tied with GM Dmitry Andreikin (3)

GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (3.5) tied with GM Alireza Firouzja (4)

GM Arjun Erigaisi (3.5) lost to GM Nihal Sarin (3)

GM M Pranesh (3) beat GM D Gukesh (1.5)

– The end

Issued by:

Saurabh Kumar

Published on:

21 Jul 2026 10:29 IST