Chennai Grand Masters: 'All the Players Safe' – Tournament postponed by a day after fire disrupts venue

Time of India

06-08-2025

Chennai Grand Masters postponed by a day after fire breaks out at tournament venue. (Screengrabs)
The third edition of the Chennai Grand Masters 2025 has been postponed by a day after a fire broke out late Tuesday night at the Hyatt Regency hotel, the venue of the tournament.
Although players will return to the venue on Wednesday, the tournament will now officially begin on Thursday, August 7.
The first round will be played on what was originally scheduled as a rest day.
As a result, the 20-player event will proceed without a break on August 11.
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'Fire at Hotel Hyatt Regency last night, the venue of the Chennai GM. All the players are safe and have been shifted to another hotel nearby. Tournament postponed by a day,' wrote Indian GM and tournament director Srinath Narayanan on X.
— srinathchess (@srinathchess)
The Chennai Grand Masters 2025 features an expanded format, an elite lineup, crucial FIDE Circuit points, and its biggest-ever prize pool of ₹1 crore.
For the first time, both the Masters and Challengers sections will be contested over nine rounds of classical round-robin chess — an upgrade from the seven rounds in previous editions.
The Masters lineup boasts an impressive mix. Headlining the field are Dutch No. 1 Anish Giri, American Grandmasters Ray Robson and Awonder Liang, Indian spearheads Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun Erigaisi, Karthikeyan Murali, and Nihal Sarin, as well as Germany's Vincent Keymer, the Netherlands' Jorden van Foreest, and local hopeful Pranav V.
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The Chennai Grand Masters will follow a round-robin format, where every participant plays against each other once under classical time control.
If the tournament ends in a tie after nine rounds, players will face a two-game blitz tiebreak with a 3+2 time control, followed by an Armageddon game if required.
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Meanwhile, the Challengers section will showcase a host of Indian talent, including Abhimanyu Puranik, Leon Mendonca, Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali R, Adhiban Baskaran, and others.
Following Russia's Vladimir Fedoseev's withdrawal from the tournament just days before the start, GM Karthikeyan Murali was promoted to the Masters section.
His vacated spot in the Challengers has been filled by Harshvardhan GB, who finished third in last month's Chess.com online qualifiers. Harshvardhan now becomes the first International Master (IM) ever to compete in the Chennai Grand Masters.
As in previous editions, a strong showing in the Challengers section could open the door to the Masters next year — a path that Pranav has already successfully followed.
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