Chennai, 6 August

The Chennai Grand Masters chess tournament, featuring some well-established Indian and international names, has been postponed to Thursday after a fire broke out at the event's venue, the Hyatt Regency hotel.

The third edition of the competition was scheduled to start on Wednesday.

"Fire at Hotel Hyatt Regency last night, the venue of the Chennai GM. All the players are safe and shifted to another hotel nearby. Tournament postponed by a day,” wrote Indian GM and tournament director Srinath Narayanan on his X handle.

The players were eventually brought back to the hotel, but the tournament will begin a day later after a fresh round of safety checks.

"Close to midnight there was an emergency in the Hotel Hyatt Regency in Chennai. Due to an electric fire on the ninth floor, the entire hotel became smoky and everyone had to evacuate the hotel before it became difficult to breathe," ChessBase India reported.

The organisers informed PTI that the timing of the matches will remain the same, but a rest day has now been removed from the schedule.

"The timings will be the same, and the tournament will end on 15 August itself. There was a rest day in between, and that is no longer part of the schedule," they said.

The Chennai Grand Masters, which carries a prize money of Rs one crore, has in its roster an impressive array of players such as India No.1 Arjun Erigaisi, seasoned Vidit Gujrathi and Anish Giri from the Netherlands.

World No. 5 Erigaisi will open his campaign against American prodigy Awonder Liang.

The highly-anticipated clash between two Indian grandmasters -- Erigaisi and Gujrathi -- is set for Round 8 on 14 August.

The tournament, which was played over seven rounds in the previous two editions, will see participation from 19 Grandmasters and offer crucial FIDE Circuit points.

The points will be vital for securing a spot in the 2026 Candidates Tournament, a case in point being reigning world champion D Gukesh, who entered the Candidates last year on the back of his strong showing here.