Gukesh Leads Before Final Round, Vies For Candidates Spot

GM Gukesh Dommaraju continued to lead with four points at the end of the sixth and penultimate round of the Chennai Grand Masters 2023 after his uneventful draw against GM Pavel Eljanov. GM Arjun Erigaisi continued his best effort to win the tournament by scoring over GM Parham Maghsoodloo in an erratic game, but he doesn't stand any chance of winning the tournament outright anymore, thus hampering his chances to aim for a spot in the Candidates tournament 2024.

Arjun trails Gukesh in the second point group with three and a half points along with GM Pentala Harikrishna and Eljanov. After the excitement of the past couple of rounds, the penultimate round turned out to be comparatively anti-climactic, with three games ending in relatively quiet draws, apart from Arjun's win over Maghsoodloo.

The crucial, final round on Thursday pits Harikrishna against Gukesh, while Eljanov and Arjun are pitted against Aronian and Sjugirov respectively. It promises excitement, impacting Gukesh's potential qualification into the Candidates 2024, as well as deciding the eventual winner of the event.

The final round of the Chennai Grand Masters starts an hour and a half earlier than usual, on Tuesday, December 21, at 3:15 a.m. ET/09:15 CET/1:45 p.m. IST.

Chennai Grand Masters Round 6 Results

Every day, the organization invites prominent personalities of the city to execute the ceremonial first move on the board. On Wednesday, it was one of the well-known trainers of the world GM R.B Ramesh who turned up for the gesture. He also joined the live commentary.

However, the penultimate round began on a double whammy at the venue—the live relay carrying the players' camera feeds from the tournament hall as well as the commentary room feeds collapsed. This meant the initial hour was without any commentary or the players' live images, and Ramesh couldn't fulfill his commentator duties.

Ramesh's chess academy based in Chennai, "Chess Gurukul," completed its 15th year anniversary recently, and Ramesh has also been conferred with the prestigious "Dronacharya Award" for prominent coaches of the country across all sports. (The name "Dronacharya" comes from the character of a legendary Guru in the Indian mythological epic Mahabharata.) So far, only two chess coaches have ever been honored with the award—Raghunandan Gokhale and Koneru Ashok (father of GM Koneru Humpy). We asked Ramesh about Gurukul and his take on targets faced by Gukesh and Arjun in the Chennai Grand Masters 2023.

It was probably the stress levels pointed out by Ramesh that made the only decisive game of the day between Maghsoodloo and Arjun so error-prone. Both players were understandably ambitious to win the game due to the tournament situation, which probably affected the quality of their play.

From this moment on, the game continued 25...Qa5?! 26.Rc1?! g5?! 27.Rf1? The whole series of moves looked sub-par for a game between players of such elite caliber.

Joining on the live commentary, GM Anish Giri noted the nerves taking over players, describing them as "very deep moves" in his typical tongue-in-cheek fashion. He also came up with this gem, noting how Maghsoodloo desperately wanted to win games in this event but was unable to do so, whereas there can be other players who are unable to score due to indifferent form: "Those who want but can't, and those who can but don't want!"

Those who want but can't, and those who can but don't want!

—Anish Giri

This action-packed game was the only decisive one on Wednesday and hence is our Game of the Day, analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.

GM Levon Aronian has had all his games ending in draws so far, and GM Alexandr Predke arrived for the game with just half a point from his previous four games. Understandably, their mutual encounter too was an error-prone affair, with Aronian having many opportunities to take the upper hand but failing to do so.

Predke's 18...f5? was a mistake, and Aronian could have obtained a clear advantage with 19.Qb6 Bxe4 20.Nfd2 here, as Black's a6-pawn is a serious target, with his other pieces not coordinating properly. However, Aronian let the moment slip away, and the game ended in a draw with further inaccuracies from both sides.

Harikrishna sacrificed a pawn almost at the end of the middlegame and once again showed his deep understanding of the endgame by finding a beautiful resource to force a draw against GM Sanan Sjugirov.

Black is down a pawn and he has to eliminate White's h3-pawn to salvage a draw. Harikrishna flashed out the resourceful 27...f5! here, and the pawn is taboo. Since capturing the pawn with 28.Bxf5?? falls to 28...Nd4+ White was forced to move his bishop away from the diagonal subsequently. This enabled Harikrishna to eliminate the crucial h-pawn and ultimately achieve a draw.

Standings After Round 6

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

• Gukesh Surges Ahead On Day Of Spectators' Delight
• Maiden Victories For Gukesh, Maghsoodloo
• Arjun Defeats Predke In Day Of Seesaw Battles
• Harikrishna, Sjugirov In Joint Lead After Day Of Fierce Fights
• Harikrishna, Eljanov Start With Wins Over Candidate Hopefuls
• Candidates Race: Gukesh, Erigaisi Get Final Chance In Last-Minute Super Tournament