Chennai Grand Masters 2025: Nihal Sarin made a big upset, defeated Arjun Erigaisi and stopped his unbeaten campaign

Nihal Sarin pulled off a huge upset by securing his first win in the Chennai Grand Masters 2025. He beat countryman Arjun Erigaisi in the fourth round on Sunday and halted his unbeaten run. Meanwhile, German Grandmaster Vincent Kemmer continued his four-match unbeaten streak by drawing with Dutch sensation Anish Giri. His dominance of the points table continues.

This is the third Chennai Grand Masters 2025, India's strongest classical chess tournament. The event is organized by MGD-1 and has two 10-player round-robin categories, Challengers and Masters, which will be held over 10 days in nine rounds.

The Masters winner will get Rs 25 lakh, the Challengers winner will get Rs 7 lakh and a direct berth in the 2026 Masters out of a total prize money of Rs 1 crore. Apart from this, the tournament Masters winner will also get 24.5 FIDE Circuit points for the 2026 Candidates Qualification.

Nihal's win over Arjun Erigaisi came after a tense and strategic contest that started with the Reti opening where Arjun copied his compatriot's setup. Chess legend Viswanathan Anand was present in the commentary box, giving fans a unique live experience. The game progressed at a slow pace and Arjun took the first pawn on the 15th move.

Slowly a tough contest started. Nihal got a chance to take the lead and he won on the 70th move to get his first success in the 2025 edition. Meanwhile, Murali Karthikeyan also impressed. He climbed up the points table by defeating Jordan Van Foreest.

In other results of the Masters, the match between Vidit Gujrati and Pranav V was balanced. Both shared the points. At the same time, the match between two American players, Awonder Liang and Ray Robson, also ended in a draw. Keymer's draw with Giri kept him in sole lead, while Nihal's win over Arjun added new excitement to the title race.