GM Awonder Liang beat GM Pranav Venkatesh in round six of the Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters 2025 to enter the 2700 club and catch GM Arjun Erigaisi in second place. Arjun lived dangerously against leader GM Vincent Keymer but ultimately drew, meaning the German number-one retains his one-point advantage with three rounds to go. The day’s other win was for GM Jorden van Foreest, who sacrificed his queen on the way to beating GM Nihal Sarin.
Four games were decisive in the Challengers, where the big story was GM Pranesh M beating and catching leader GM Abhimanyu Puranik. GM Leon Luke Mendonca also took advantage to make it a three-way tie for first with a win over GM Aryan Chopra. GM Harika Dronavalli won the all-female clash with GM Vaishali Rameshbabu after her opponent blundered in a drawn endgame.
Round seven will start on Wednesday, August 13, at 5:30 a.m. ET/11:30 CEST/3 p.m. IST.
Standings After Round 6: Challengers
Masters: Awonder Hits 2700 As Keymer Holds Arjun
Liang had an awkward post-game interview after round five when he’d taken a draw in a near-winning position, but there were no such issues after round six. The 22-year-old U.S. grandmaster seemed to need to retreat his rook in a drawish position against Pranav, but instead he sacrificed it for the bishop on e3.
Suddenly the black knights were able to dominate the position, and Liang went on to win very smoothly.
That’s our Game of the Day, which has been analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.
The win took Liang up to joint second place, but it also saw him hit an exact 2700.0 rating!
Congratulations to GM Awonder Liang 🇺🇸 on becoming the latest player to cross 2700 😍
Thank You @2700chess 🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/T2SIfWAwD8
— Rakesh Kulkarni (@itherocky) August 12, 2025
If the U.S. star can keep that rating until the end of the month, he’ll officially be a 2700 player for the first time—not bad for someone who had been focused on his studies at the University of Chicago until graduating this year. Liang has a chance to really set the cat among the pigeons in round seven, since he’ll take on Keymer with the white pieces and would catch him with a win.
Arjun had a similar task in round six, but had Black and needed to gamble to gain realistic winning chances. That’s just what he did, with the game developing into an opposite-sides castling race in which White’s kingside pawns looked terrifying.
Arjun, despite being under the weather—he’d seen a doctor on the morning of the game—didn’t show a hint of fear as the white assault advanced. Perhaps the key moment came on move 22, when Keymer spent 20 minutes on the decision to capture on h5 rather than push g5, a move our commentators felt he would play instantly in a blitz game.
The position objectively became closer to a draw than a white win, and with Keymer’s time getting perilously low it felt as though Arjun might take over. In the end, however, the game ended fairly as a draw, with both players having handled a complex position well.
It was a day of intense battles on all boards. Arguably the “quietest” game featured 123 moves, with GM Ray Robson unable to win rook and bishop vs. rook against GM Karthikeyan Murali. That game had earlier featured an insanely sharp variation to swap off queens and net Black a pawn.
It was a curious day, as we also got to see the much more drawish rook and knight vs. rook, with GM Vidit Gujrathi, the man with the knight, playing on until move 109 against his frenemy GM Anish Giri. The tension wasn’t high for that stage of the game, but earlier Vidit had come very close to beating his Dutch opponent. The most picturesque moment was when Vidit went for the spectacular 34…Qf5?!.
That forced Giri to find the only defense, 35.Bxd6!, which he did, and it turned out everything was working out for him in some more hyper-sharp tactics.
A 6th draw in a row for Giri, but Vidit earlier had a real chance to win this 109-move marathon! https://t.co/OL8T61Lvra pic.twitter.com/zcnBjPBBom
— chess24 (@chess24com) August 12, 2025
That leaves the other win from round six, where Nihal trapped Van Foreest’s queen but soon found he’d bitten off more than he could chew!
That second win in a row took Van Foreest back to 50 percent, 1.5 points behind Keymer. In round seven, all eyes will be on Liang-Keymer, where the U.S. star could catch the leader with a win—but Keymer could almost clinch tournament victory himself if he takes the full point. We’ll also have Arjun attempting to be the first person to beat Giri in Chennai this year!
Challengers: Pranesh Topples The Leader
Midway through round six of the Challengers, it looked as though Abhimanyu might pick up a fifth win in a row to consolidate his lead, but things fell apart as he slipped to defeat and was caught by Pranesh.
Mendonca also caught Abhimanyu with a convincing win over Aryan, while GM Adhiban Baskaran moved up into the group a point behind the leaders by scoring a first win after five draws, against GM Diptayan Ghosh. The game between IM Harshavardhan G B and GM Iniyan P stretched to 111 moves, while Vaishali suffered a fourth loss in a row just when it seemed she’d pulled off a great escape against Harika. Instead, she blundered in the endgame.
English GM David Howell tweeted: “Study your endgames, everyone! Putting the rook on b1 is both logical and best (stopping the enemy pawn), with a simple draw. Gaps in theoretical endgame knowledge can cost points!”
Chess is tough!
How To Watch
The third 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.
