A supremely confident upGrad Mumba Masters came up with another grand performance, beating Fyers American Gambits 9-7 to make it two wins on the trot and go top of the table in the Global Chess League in Mumbai on Monday.
Mumba Masters delivered a high-quality performance in front of the 'home' crowd, defeating the Viswanathan Anand-led Ganges Grandmasters
Grandmasters Raunak Sadhwani and S L Narayanan, India's two best hopes, were held to draws by Daniel Barrish of South Africa and Steven Salas Rojas of Peru in the first game of the opening round of World Chess Cup, in Panjim, on Saturday.
Fyers American Gambits survived some anxious moments before a last-gasp win on the 'Prodigy' board helped them overturn a deficit to seal a dramatic 10-8 victory against reigning champions Triveni Continental Kings on day three of the Global Chess League in Mumbai on Tuesday.
The experienced Surya Shekhar Ganguly, GM Raunak Sadhwani and GM Karthik Venkatraman scored comfortable victories while M Pranesh played out a draw to advance to the second round, while IM Aronyak Ghosh defeated GM Mateusz Bartel of Poland to force a tie-breaker, in the FIDE World Cup 2025 in Panaji on Sunday.
Indian Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi was held to a draw by 12-year-old Argentine sensation Oro Faustino in the first game of the second round of the FIDE World Cup in Panjim on Tuesday.
Grandmaster Diptayan Ghosh caused the biggest upset of the World Chess Cup, ousting former world championship challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia after winning the second game of the second round, in Panjim, on Wednesday.
India's second major casualty on the day was Aravindh Chithambaram who lost to compatriot K Venkatramanan after the second set of rapid games.
India's Narayanan, Diptayan, Aronyak advance to second round
Defending champion and Grandmaster R Vaishali jumped into sole lead in the women's section
Gukesh, Erigaisi snapped up by PBG Alaskan Knights in GCL draft
Grandmaster Nihal Sarin played out a quick and effortless draw with Matthias Bluebaum of Germany to share the lead with the German on six points after the end of the eighth round of FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Friday.
Looking to assert his supremacy across formats, reigning world champion D Gukesh of India began his campaign in the FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, with a crushing victory over France's Etienne Bacrot in the first round.
Vaishali knew she had to win to remain in contention and her approach right from the start was in sync with the requirement of the tournament situation.
Indian Grandmaster Nihal Sarin's hopes of making to the Candidates tournament suffered a setback as he lost to Alireza Firouzja of France in the ninth round of the FIDE Grand Swiss, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Saturday.
Women's World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh, who has also qualified for the Women's Candidates, has opted out of the women's section to compete with the best in business.
While only one place seems assured for the Indians in the men's section, there are already three in the women's category who have made it to the Candidates.
World Champion D Gukesh suffered his second straight defeat at the FIDE Grand Swiss, losing to Greece's Nikolas Theodorou in the sixth round in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Tuesday.
World Champion D Gukesh went down to world's youngest-ever Grandmaster Abhimanyu Mishra of the US in the fifth round of the FIDE Grand Swiss.
R Praggnanandhaa was held to a draw by the world's youngest-ever Grandmaster Abhimanyu Mishra of the United States.
Neither current World Champion D Gukesh nor former world champion Vishy Anand are the top rated Indian chess player.
Viswanathan Anand is the third Indian in the top 10, occupying the 10th spot with an ELO rating of 2750.
Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi opened his campaign with four victories and a solitary defeat in the World Rapid Chess Championship and was tied fifth, even as defending champion Magnus Carlsen endured a frustrating day, managing to log just one victory in New York.
Mumba's only win came on the prodigy board. Jonas Bjerre of American Gambits launched an all-out attack against Raunak Sadhwani, even sacrificing a piece.
Rameshbabu Vaishali won the women's qualifier scoring 9.5 points out of 11 to advance to the quarter-finals of the World Blitz Championship.
Led by Viswanathan Anand, the Ganges Grandmasters outclassed upGrad Mumba Masters 12-4 on the final day of the Global Chess League, avoiding a last-place finish as the tournament heads into the finals.
Mumba Masters secured a vital 14-5 win over Alpine Sg Pipers on day six of the Global Chess League here on Tuesday, dealing a major blow to the Pipers' chances of closing in on the top two teams.
World No. 4 Indian Arjun Erigaisi beat compatriot Vidit Gujrathi after five hours of end-to-end action in the opening round of the Chennai Chess Grand Masters 2024 in Chennai on Monday.
Vidit Gujrathi was around six when he was advised to put his ambition of playing cricket on hold till he was older by a local club.
Top seeded Grandmaster Erigaisi Arjun played out a draw with eventual winner Bardiya Daneshvar of Iran in the ninth and final round to finish in the top 10 at the Sharjah Masters International chess tournament in Sharjah.
Another Indian, Arjun Erigaisi could not crack the solid defences of Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran and had to settle for a draw.
Five-time world champions Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen played out a draw in the top duel of the opening day as the second edition of the Global Chess League began with players from around the world squaring off in London on Thursday.
Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi was stunned by Nikolas Theodorou of Greece in the second round of Sharjah Masters chess tournament in Sharjah.
Erigaisi Arjun was held to a draw by Alexey Sarana of Serbia
The coin toss gave the Alaskan Knights the white pieces, with 20 minutes per player on the clock -- 40 minutes are alloted a match.
In a surprising turn of events, Mumba Masters defeated tournament leaders PBG Alaskan Knights, denying them direct qualification to the finals of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League in London on Wednesday.
Aravindh Chithamabaram took his tally to 3.5 points out of a possible four.
'It is not just D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi.' 'There are another 20 players just behind them. Nobody imagined this was possible 5 years ago.'
World number seven Erigaise Arjun started his campaign on a positive note, outplaying Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan in the first round of the Sharjah Masters chess tournament in Sharjah.
Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi pipped Rinat Zumabayev of Kazakhstan in the fifth round to share the top spot.