French GM Alireza Firouzja secured the only victory on the opening day of the Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters 2026, defeating M. Pranesh in 79 moves. World champion D. Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi drew their opening-round games in Chennai.
Indian Grandmaster Nihal Sarin has qualified for the Esports World Cup chess event in Paris through the Champions Chess Tour leaderboard. He joins Aravindh Chithambaram as the second Indian participant in the tournament featuring top global chess players.
Grandmaster Nihal Sarin (S8UL Esports) has qualified for the Chess playoffs at the ongoing Esports World Cup 2025 in Riyadh. After a strong comeback, defeating Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, he now faces five-time World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the quarterfinals of the $1.5 million tournament, boosting S8UL's presence across multiple titles
The five GMs played simultaneous games online against those who had paid the necessary fees ($150 to play against Anand and $25 to play against others).
