Chennai Grand Masters postponed after fireplace incident at match’s venue
The beginning of the third version of the Chennai Grand Masters chess match has been deferred by a day after a hearth broke out late Tuesday evening on the occasion’s venue, the Hyatt Regency lodge in Chennai. All collaborating gamers are secure and have been quickly shifted to a close-by lodge.
The match, which was initially scheduled to start on Wednesday, will now kick off on Thursday following contemporary security inspections on the lodge.
“Fireplace at Resort Hyatt Regency final evening, the venue of the Chennai GM. All of the gamers are secure and shifted to a different lodge close by. Match postponed by a day,” Indian Grandmaster and match director Srinath Narayanan posted on X.
Though gamers have been later introduced again to the lodge, the organisers opted to push the match by a day as a precaution.
“Near midnight there was an emergency within the Resort Hyatt Regency in Chennai. Because of an electrical fireplace on the ninth flooring, your entire lodge grew to become smoky and everybody needed to evacuate the lodge earlier than it grew to become troublesome to breathe,” ChessBase India reported.
Talking to PTI, the organisers confirmed that whereas the schedule has been barely adjusted, the match will nonetheless conclude on August 15 as deliberate.
“The timings would be the similar, and the match will finish on August 15 itself. There was a relaxation day in between, and that’s now not a part of the schedule,” they mentioned.
Main names function in match
The Chennai Grand Masters, boasting a prize pool of INR 1 crore, encompasses a sturdy subject together with Indian No.1 Arjun Erigaisi, skilled campaigner Vidit Gujrathi, and Dutch star Anish Giri. Erigaisi, at the moment ranked World No. 5, will start his marketing campaign towards American prodigy Awonder Liang.
One of the anticipated fixtures of the match, a conflict between Erigaisi and Gujrathi, is ready to happen in Spherical 8 on August 14.
In contrast to the earlier two editions which have been performed over seven rounds, this 12 months’s match will see 19 Grandmasters in motion and can provide key FIDE Circuit factors. These factors might show essential in qualifying for the 2026 Candidates Match, as was the case with reigning world champion D Gukesh, whose breakthrough at this occasion final 12 months earned him a spot within the Candidates.
