M Pranesh hands Gukesh second straight defeat in Chennai

GM M Pranesh defeated World Champion D Gukesh for the second straight time, while GM Nihal Sarin overcame Arjun Erigaisi in the Chennai Grand Masters 2026. Alireza Firouzja moved into the sole lead with one round remaining in the prestigious classical chess tournament

Hyderabad: GM M Pranesh inflicted a second straight loss on world champion D Gukesh while GM Nihal Sarin defeated compatriot Arjun Erigaisi in the penultimate round of the fourth edition of the Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters 2026, India’s most prestigious classical chess tournament in Chennai on Tuesday.

Erigaisi’s defeat meant that French GM Alireza Firouzja, who drew his Round 6 game against GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, is in sole lead with 4 points. Erigaisi and Abdusattorov are joint second place with 3.5 points.Organised by MGD1, the tournament witnesses eight grandmasters face off in a round-robin format and offers a prize purse of ₹ 75,00,000 and valuable FIDE Circuit points.

---

After Narendra Kumar, Managing Trustee of Chola Foundation and WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy made the first ceremonial move, it looked like Gukesh could finally score a win. But the world champion erred more than once with his calculations and Pranesh made the most of these opportunities to register his first win of the competition in 39 moves.

Erigaisi needed just a draw against Nihal Sarin to stay in joint lead with Firouzja and for the most part of their game, that result looked a distinct possibility. But a brilliant rook sacrifice by Nihal turned the game decisively in his favour and Erigaisi resigned after 60 moves.
The results: 6th round: GM Hans Niemann (2.5) drew with GM Dmitry Andreikin (3); GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (3.5) drew 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).