Andreikin beats Abdusattorov, ends tied for second place with Erigaisi

Alireza Firouzja won the fourth edition of the Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters with an unbeaten 4½/7 score. The French representative secured first place by drawing his final-round game with Arjun Erigaisi, finishing half a point ahead of Erigaisi and Dmitry Andreikin.

Firouzja entered the last round as the sole leader and had the white pieces against one of his direct rivals. Erigaisi chose the Sicilian Defence, signalling his intention to create an unbalanced contest and play for the win he needed to overtake Firouzja.

Firouzja nevertheless kept the position under control and welcomed exchanges when they became available. The resulting endgame retained a slight structural imbalance, but White's 25.d5 removed the isolated pawn and left Erigaisi with little realistic prospect of generating winning chances.

The players subsequently agreed a draw.

Firouzja had begun the tournament with consecutive victories over Pranesh M and world champion Gukesh Dommaraju. He then drew his remaining five games, a sequence that proved sufficient to secure the title outright.

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The victory was Firouzja's second consecutive success in an over-the-board event, following his triumph at the Super Rapid & Blitz tournament in Zagreb. His performance in Chennai earned him 7.6 rating points and took him back into the top ten of the live world rankings.

His year had previously included a difficult Super Chess Classic in Bucharest, where an ankle injury forced him to withdraw after five rounds. He lost three games there, including two played from a bed in his hotel room. Firouzja recovered in time to compete at Norway Chess in Oslo, where he scored his first-ever classical victory over Magnus Carlsen - the French representative finished the super-tournament in third place.

Erigaisi and Andreikin shared second place on 4/7. Erigaisi recorded two wins and one loss, while Andreikin reached the same score by defeating Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the final round after drawing each of his first six games.

Abdusattorov again emerged from the opening in an inferior position, as he had done several times earlier in the tournament. The Uzbek grandmaster appeared close to escaping once more, but the mistaken 33.Nd5+? proved costly in the endgame featuring rooks and knights.

Andreikin took control and converted his only victory of the event.

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Abdusattorov, Pranesh and Nihal Sarin finished on 3½/7. Hans Niemann scored 3/7 and ended the tournament in seventh place.

Notably, Gukesh finished last with 2/7 after failing to win a game and suffering three defeats. He lost to Firouzja in round two before consecutive defeats against Erigaisi and Pranesh in rounds five and six. The world champion had obtained advantages in both all-Indian encounters that ended in consecutive defeats. However, he fell well behind on the clock, prompting him to first give up his advantage and then lose the game.

Gukesh's performance cost him 13.9 rating points, leaving him 31^st in the live rankings and only three points above the 2700 mark. The 20-year-old is due to defend his world title against Javokhir Sindarov later this year. Sindarov currently stands fourth in the live world rankings, 74 rating points above the Indian grandmaster.

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Gukesh Dommaraju | Photo: Tushar Damor

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