2 min readChennaiUpdated: Jul 16, 2026 09:27 PM IST On a day of draws, French-Iranian grandmaster Alireza Firouzja was the only player to emerge from the first round of Chennai Grand Masters 2026 with a win, prevailing over young Pranesh M in 79 moves. The day’s twin ‘friendship derbies’ — the games between D Gukesh and Nihal Sarin, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Hans Niemann — ended in draws, as did Arjun Erigaisi’s clash with Dmitry Andreikin. It leaves Firouzja as the sole leader in the seven-round tournament. Against Sarin, the world champion, playing with white pieces, enjoyed a tiny edge out of the opening. But after 13 moves, the game had equalised even though Gukesh’s queen squatted over the h6 square eyeballing Nihal’s king on g8. Gukesh spent 20 minutes on his 17th move to fall behind by 40. By the 19th move, Gukesh’s time had ticked down to just 22 minutes while his opponent had over an hour on his clock. This left open the possibility of Gukesh wading into trouble on the clock …