GM Vincent Keymer is the only player on a perfect 2/2 in either section of the Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters 2025 after winning a wild game with Black against GM Pranav Venkatesh. The other winner was GM Ray Robson, who won a thrilling time scramble against GM Vidit Gujrathi. Robson shares second place with GM Arjun Erigaisi, who made a tense draw against GM Jorden van Foreest, while GM Nihal Sarin had a near miss against GM Anish Giri.
The Challengers saw top seed GM Abhimanyu Puranik beat GM Leon Luke Mendonca to join a four-way tie for first place that includes the day’s other winner GM Iniyan P, who inflicted a second defeat of the event on GM Harika Dronavalli.
Round three will start on Saturday, August 9, at 5:30 a.m. ET/11:30 CEST/3 p.m. IST.
Standings After Round 2: Challengers
Masters Round 2: Keymer, Robson Strike On Day Of More Fire On Board
After two rounds in Chennai, it’s only Keymer who still has a perfect score after he took down Pranav. The German number-one summed up the game, and in many ways the whole round, accurately:
The position was very complicated and we both had to make many committal decisions low on time. Of course in the end it was complete madness!
Of course in the end it was complete madness!
—Vincent Keymer on his win over Pranav
Here’s a snapshot of the position after Pranav correctly grabbed a pawn with 30.Bxh5!.
30…gxh5? 31.Qe2! wins for White, but Keymer found in fact the only move to keep control of the position—30…Bh6!. In the end Black’s strategic advantage of powerful connected passed pawns on the c- and d-files would triumph, but it was a wild ride. That’s our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao analyzes below.
That was enough to take the sole lead when co-leader Arjun was held to a draw by Van Foreest.
In fact the recently crowned Dutch Champion perhaps had a fleeting chance for a big advantage when Arjun took his usual risks in the opening. Capturing on e5 with a pawn would have asked serious questions.
As it was, Van Foreest admitted he was “under some pressure” before making a draw.
GM Karthikeyan Murali vs. GM Awonder Liang was the day’s quietest draw, with Liang playing a line he’d used to draw GM Alireza Firouzja in a Titled Tuesday tournament. While Karthikeyan was struggling to remember or work things out at the board, the U.S. star only faced a new try on move 14, and effortlessly steered toward a drawn opposite-colored bishop endgame a pawn down.
The final draw was anything but quiet, however, as Nihal almost continued to be Giri’s nemesis. In the recent Esports World Cup, Nihal beat Giri 1.5-0.5 in the Last Chance Qualifier before knocking his opponent out 2-0 in the main event.
This time a position seemingly destined to end quietly suddenly transformed into one where Nihal was breaking through with 33.g4! and looked to be bouncing back after a tough loss in round one.
It was tricky, however, time ran out for both players, and in the end Giri escaped—in fact Nihal was perhaps correct to pull the emergency brake before a disaster like the day before could happen again. Both players could be relieved the madness was over.
Nihal sees the funny side after Giri pulls off a great escape to make a draw! https://t.co/LzH5SCpCmf pic.twitter.com/P2mCAMkjNL
— chess24 (@chess24com) August 8, 2025
That still leaves the craziest game of the day—Robson’s victory over Vidit. The game lurched out of control when the Indian star found the fine 27…Ne3! in the following position.
Vidit played it with under four minutes on his clock, while Robson, down to under six minutes, correctly gave up his queen with 28.Rxc8!. Brilliancies and inevitable blunders followed from both players, with Vidit winning for some time for a second day in a row, until Robson’s army ultimately wove a checkmating net around the black king. The only predictable thing about the game was when resignation would come.
“We’re going to see handshakes in about 4 seconds from now…”
4 seconds later, Vidit resigns a game he was winning before allowing Ray Robson to hit back and weave a brilliant checkmating net! https://t.co/jnQXNmTpoY pic.twitter.com/6gXZKAzqVM
— chess24 (@chess24com) August 8, 2025
Robson’s life isn’t likely to get any quieter when he has Black against the player he shares second place with, Arjun, in round three, while leader Keymer will be White against Karthikeyan as he pushes for 3/3.
Challengers Round 2: Puranik Joins 4-Way Tie For 1st
There were also two winners in the Challengers, with Iniyan ensuring Harika’s tough start continued, while top-seed Puranik scored the key win of the day, outwitting one of his key rivals, Mendonca, in time trouble.
GM Vaishali Rameshbabu had chances against GM Adhiban Baskaran, but the draw meant she’d already achieved the same score as she managed in the seven rounds of the Challengers in 2024.
The most memorable game of the round in the Challengers was the draw GM Diptayan Ghosh made against GM Pranesh M. 26-year-old Ghosh revealed this is the first closed tournament he’s ever played and that if not for qualifying via an online event on Chess.com he’d have played in the Czech Open instead.
He set the board on fire with a sacrifice on h7, though he confessed afterward that he’d have played 12.Be2! if he’d spotted his opponent’s response to the move in the game. Ultimately things ended in a draw by repetition, though White could have played on.
That draw was enough to give Pranesh a tie for the lead on 1.5, and he’ll face a co-leader, Iniyan, in round three.
How To Watch
The 3rd edition of the Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters is taking place August 7-15, 2025, in Chennai, India. There are two 10-play round-robins, the Masters and the Challengers, with 90 minutes for all moves, plus a 30-second increment from move 1. The top prize is ₹25,00,000, which is almost $30,000.
