GM M Pranesh continued his run at the Chennai Grand Masters by defeating world champion D Gukesh for the second time in a row, while GM Nihal Sarin defeated Arjun Erigaisi in a crucial Round 6 encounter on Tuesday. The results also changed the leaderboard, with French Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja leading by four points after drawing his match against GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Erigaisi’s defeat left him tied with Abdusattorov at 3.5 points heading into the final round. Organized by MGD1, the elite eight-player round-robin tournament features some of the world’s leading grandpas and carries a prize money of ₹ 75 lakh along with FIDE Circuit points. The proceedings of the day began with Narendra Kumar, Managing Trustee of the Chola Foundation, and Woman Grandmaster Aarthie Ramaswamy performing the inaugural ceremony. Much attention was on Gukesh, who looked good to register his first win of the tournament. However, the world champion got distracted with a miscalculation, which resulted in Pranesh doing the job. The youngster capitalized on the mistakes and completed the win in 39 moves to claim his first tournament win as he handed Gukesh his second consecutive defeat. In the next round, Erigaisi got into a fight with Nihal Sarin needing a draw to stay with Firouzja at the top of the standings. In the big match, the result was decided before Nihal made a stunning sacrifice that changed the game. A brilliant strike was decisive, forcing Erigaisi to resign after 60 moves. Elsewhere, Hans Niemann and Dmitry Andreikin shared the points after their matches ended in a draw, while Firouzja maintained his lead by drawing with Abdusattorov. Result 6:
- Hans Niemann (2.5) joined Dmitry Andreikin (3)
- Nodirbek Abdusattorov (3.5) Drew with Alireza Firouzja (4)
- Nihal Sarin (3) beat Arjun Erigaisi (3.5)
- M Pranesh (3) beat D Gukesh (1.5)