CHENNAI: Gukesh secured his first win of the Chennai Grand Masters 2023 by defeating Russian Grandmaster Alexandr Predke on Monday.
It has been a tiring month for Gukesh as he came into this tournament just after playing the London Chess Classic with the hopes of going into the Candidates next year. But the opening three rounds for the Indian Grandmaster ended in a draw. However, Gukesh had a happy start to the week as he defeated Predke in round four and will be hoping to continue his form as he plays Sanan Sjugirov in round five on Tuesday.
Arjun Erigaisi who secured his first win in round three ended up with a draw in round four when he played the Ukrainian Grandmaster Pavel Eljanov.
The leaderboard saw a drastic change after round four, Sanan Sjugirov who was leading before this round went down to sixth as he lost to Parham Maghsoodloo.
Harikrishna and Gukesh are now the two leaders with two and a half points each.
With five of them right behind the leaders with two points, it is expected that the tournament is going down the wire till the last round that will be played later this week.