Hyderabad: French Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja was crowned champion of the fourth edition of the Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters 2026, India’s most prestigious classical chess tournament in Chennai on Wednesday after he played out a draw against India’s GM Arjun Erigaisi in the seventh and final round.
Firouzja, who had started the competition with two consecutive wins, had gone into the final round with half a point advantage over his nearest rivals, Erigaisi and GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan.
In an attempt to push for a win with black pieces to try and claim the title, Abdusattorov lost to GM Dmitry Andreikin in 37-moves.
This meant that Firouzja then needed just a draw against Erigaisi to grab the crown and he did just that in 41 moves with his Indian opponent having little chance of turning the tables in the rook-pawn endgame.
Organised by MGD1, the tournament witnessed eight grandmasters face-off in a round-robin format and offered a prize purse of ₹ 75,00,000 and valuable FIDE Circuit points.
The Frenchman will take home a prize purse of ₹ 25,00,000 ($26500) for his effort that saw him win two matches and draw the next five.
Andreikin, who was the only unbeaten player in the competition apart from Firouzja, finished with 4 points along with Erigaisi.
Abdusattorov along with GM Nihal Sarin and GM M Pranesh finished fourth with 3.5 points.
World champion D Gukesh’s struggles continued as he lost three of his seven matches and finished last with 2 points.
The results: 7th round: GM D Gukesh (2) drew with GM Hans Niemann (3);
GM Nihal Sarin (3.5) drew with GM M Pranesh (3.5); GM Alireza Firouzja; (4.5) drew with GM Arjun Erigaisi (4);
GM Dmitry Andreikin (4) beat GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (3.5).