Maiden Victories For Gukesh, Maghsoodloo
GM Gukesh Dommaraju scored his first victory of the tournament over GM Alexandr Predke to join GM Pentala Harikrishna in the lead with two and a half points from four rounds of the Chennai Grand Masters 2023. Harikrishna looked to be in a spot of bother against GM Levon Aronian but managed to salvage a draw in a rook ending where he was down a pawn.
GM Parham Maghsoodloo extricated himself from a difficult-looking position in the early middlegame against overnight joint-leader GM Sanan Sjugirov to mount a successful attack, scoring his first win in the tournament. Overall, it was a day of hard-fought games at Chennai.
The Chennai Grand Masters continues with round five on Tuesday, December 19, at 4:45 a.m. ET/10:45 CET/3:15 p.m. IST.
Chennai Grand Masters Round 4 Results
| Rating | Title | Player | Result | Title | Player | Rating | |||
| 1 | 2720 | GM | Gukesh D | 1-0 | GM | Alexandr Predke | 2689 | ||
| 2 | 2691 | GM | Pavel Eljanov | ½-½ | GM | Arjun Erigaisi | 2727 | ||
| 3 | 2723 | GM | Levon Aronian | ½-½ | GM | P. Harikrishna | 2696 | ||
| 4 | 2742 | GM | P. Maghsoodloo | 1-0 | GM | Sanan Sjugirov | 2703 |
With players getting openly ambitious as the tournament progresses, many games featured uncompromising fights, with risk-taking becoming a norm rather than an exception.
Gukesh 1-0 Predke
Predke showed his excellent opening preparation for the game by employing the rare 3....e5 and 4...Be7 in the Rossolimo variation of the Sicilian Defense, and continuing to play quickly till the 13th move, whereas Gukesh was taking his time for his moves. The pivotal moment of the middlegame arose on the 16th move.
Gukesh had the courage to play 16.g4!? here, seemingly weakening his kingside to capture the d4-pawn on the next move. But this proved to be a worthwhile decision, as Predke was forced to play with equal dynamism in the ensuing middlegame, thus setting up an exciting clash.
The game reached a further elevated state of intrigue when Gukesh employed his king to travel up the board in a tense middlegame, thus making it clear that he was ready to fight in this game.
Appearing on the live commentary, GM Anish Giri had words of praise for Gukesh: "These are moves of someone who hasn't been using chess engines as a child."
This delightful fight is our Game of the Day, analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.
Maghsoodloo 1-0 Sjugirov
Giri had highly positive words for the aggressive play unleashed by Maghsoodloo against Sjugirov, not bogged by his indifferent start in the tournament.
That's the good thing about Parham, and why his rating is so high—although he has a very unstable chess style,... he has [a] very good ability to come back. In his mind, he never gives up. Bad streaks never break him. So, let's say he has two bad games, there is no reason for him to play the next game badly... He seems to have a very positive mindset.
In his mind, he never gives up!
—Anish Giri
In fact, it was Sjugirov who seemed to be calling the shots in the opening, till he erroneously captured the white knight on e1 on the 14th move.
Chatting up after the game, Maghsoodloo was glad to proclaim: "I have a... huge fighting spirit, which allows me to fight back after each loss... I [am] not afraid of losing—it gives me 10 times more fighting spirit to win the next game." Admirable words from the Iranian Grandmaster.
I have a huge fighting spirit, which allows me to fight back after each loss
—Parham Maghsoodloo
"I will try very hard to win more games in the last three rounds" - 🇮🇷 GM Parham Maghsoodloo after scoring his first win of the #ChennaiGM event. pic.twitter.com/znnAvX6qYR
— Chess.com - India (@chesscom_in) December 18, 2023
Aronian ½-½ Harikrishna
The game never really looked like it was beyond the defendable threshold for Harikrishna, save for a moment when Aronian could have fought for a bigger advantage in the rook ending by not capturing an extra pawn.
It was for the third time in this tournament that Harikrishna was able to hold the game after being down a pawn at some point. How does he manage it? Hari grins widely when we ask him the question: "Endgames involve a lot of calculation—players tend to think that, whoever is good at understanding... can play better endgames. That's a myth in my opinion."
GM Harikrishna Pentala effortlessly held a draw despite being down a pawn. Here's what he said about the game 👇 #ChennaiGM pic.twitter.com/0Icnp2sBx7
— Chess.com - India (@chesscom_in) December 18, 2023
Eljanov ½-½ Arjun
GM Arjun Erigaisi began the game impressively with the creative 14...Ra6, and the game did produce some excitement especially as GM Pavel Eljanov seemed to be struggling with a mildly difficult position and time pressure, but he held his nerve to hold the draw.
Standings After Round 4
How to watch the Chennai Grand Masters 2023
You can keep up with all the games and results of the tournament on our live events platform by following this link.
The Chennai Grand Masters 2023 is an eight-player all-play-all tournament in Chennai, India, running December 15-21. The strongest classical invitational tournament ever held in India, it gives Gukesh, Arjun, and Maghsoodloo a chance to qualify for the 2024 Candidates Tournament. The prize fund is $60,000, with $18,000 for first place.
Previous Coverage
