India No.1 Arjun Erigaisi beats World Champion Gukesh at 4th Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters 2026
Arjun Erigaisi defeated World Champion D Gukesh in a complex battle in the 5th round of the 4th Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters 2026 Chess Tournament. Gukesh played a brilliant game to outplay Arjun, and he was completely crushing, but he couldn't find the perfect finisher, and the game went on. Under time pressure, Gukesh let the chances slip and then made a crucial error to lose the game. In another decisive result, Nodirbek Abdusattorov defeated Nihal Sarin. The 6th round will start on 21st July at 3:30 PM IST. Photos: Tushar Damor
Why is chess so difficult?
The engine says Gukesh is totally winning as White. But how? He thinks and thinks and doesn't find it. Eventually Arjun wins! In life, we always forget what our opponent wants! We keep thinking how we will win, but sometimes it is important to ask: if I stop my opponent's plan, what would they do? Victory often comes by not doing much more than that! - IM Sagar Shah
The trick here is to play Bf4!! At first, this move looks absolutely nonsensical. What is the bishop doing on f4? Why not go to d6, but Bd6, Rd8? I cannot find a way to break in. The idea is to go Bf4!! and then calmly Ng3 so that Black no longer has Nf5, and then go for Be5 Bg7.
The natural question to ask is can the black queen come back and stop things with Qa3? But Be5-g7 is still very strong. The key idea is to go Ng3 before all of this! (Analysis by IM Sagar Shah)
Abdusattorov managed to gain an early advantage and kept putting pressure on Nihal to squeeze out the win. This win helped Abdusattorov to reach 3/6 points, and he's now in sole second place.
Replay Round 5 Games
Round 5 Results
Bo. | No. | Rtg |
| White | Result | Black |
| Rtg | No. | PGN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 3 | 2666 | GM | ½ - ½ | GM | 2730 | 8 | |||||
2 | 4 | 2717 | GM | 0 - 1 | GM | 2757 | 2 | |||||
3 | 5 | 2717 | GM | 0 - 1 | GM | 2766 | 1 | |||||
4 | 6 | 2749 | GM | ½ - ½ | GM | 2710 | 7 |
Rank after Round 5
Rk. | SNo |
| Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | GM | IND | 2757 | 3,5 | 0 | 7,25 | 2 | 1 | ||
2 | 6 | GM | FRA | 2749 | 3,5 | 0 | 6,75 | 2 | 1 | ||
3 | 1 | GM | UZB | 2766 | 3 | 0 | 6,5 | 1 | 1 | ||
4 | 7 | GM | FID | 2710 | 2,5 | 0 | 6,25 | 0 | 0 | ||
5 | 8 | GM | USA | 2730 | 2 | 1 | 5,25 | 0 | 0 | ||
6 | 3 | GM | IND | 2666 | 2 | 2 | 5,5 | 0 | 0 | ||
7 | 5 | GM | IND | 2717 | 2 | 2 | 4,75 | 0 | 0 | ||
8 | 4 | GM | IND | 2717 | 1,5 | 0 | 3,75 | 0 | 0 |
Round 6 Pairings
Bo. | No. | Rtg |
| White | Result | Black |
| Rtg | No. | PGN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 8 | 2730 | GM | GM | 2710 | 7 | ||||||
2 | 1 | 2766 | GM | GM | 2749 | 6 | ||||||
3 | 2 | 2757 | GM | GM | 2717 | 5 | ||||||
4 | 3 | 2666 | GM | GM | 2717 | 4 |
Photo Gallery: Here
Video Gallery: Here
Lineup
Tournament Format & Details
Format: 8-Player Single Round-Robin (7 rounds of classical chess).
Time Control: 90 minutes for the entire game, with a 30-second increment starting from move 1.
Venue: The Westin Chennai Velachery.
Prize Fund: ₹75,00,000.
Prizes
With massive FIDE Circuit points on the line for the next Candidates cycle and a grand prize pool of ₹75,00,000,
Venue: The Westin Chennai Velachery
Previous winners
Winner | Runner-up | Year |
|---|---|---|
GM Vincent Keymer | GM Anish Giri | 2025 |
GM Aravindh Chithambaram | GM Levon Aronian | 2024 |
GM Gukesh Dommaraju | GM Arjun Erigaisi | 2023 |
Important Links
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