Chennai Grand Masters: Late-night fire forces players to evacuate hotel, round 1 postponed

An emergency took place at the Hotel Hyatt Regency in Chennai late at night on Tuesday, August 5. A fire broke out on the 9th floor due to an electrical problem and smoke quickly spread through the entire hotel, making it hard to breathe. All the players and officials staying there had to evacuate the building.

The hotel was housing all participants of the 2025 Chennai Grand Masters tournament, including both the Masters and Challengers sections. According to ChessBase India, everyone was confused and worried at first, but once it became clear that the smoke wouldn’t clear for a few hours, the organisers acted quickly.

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Round 1 postponed due to fire incident

They postponed Round 1 of the tournament from August 6th to August 7th. This was possible because the original schedule had a rest day on August 11th, which will now be removed. They also shifted all players and officials for the night to Hotel Pullman, so they could rest safely. Players are expected to return to the Hyatt Regency in the morning of August 6th.

This year marks the third edition of the Chennai Grand Masters, which is considered India’s strongest classical chess tournament. The tournament will be taking place from August 6 to August 15. Play will begin at 2:00 PM IST every day except on the final day, in which it will begin a couple of hours earlier. It will feature top international players like Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi and GM Anish Giri.

Following are the players who will be participating in the ‘Masters’ section:

– GM Arjun Erigaisi (India)

– GM Anish Giri (Netherlands)

– GM Vincent Keymer (Germany)

– GM Vidit Gujrathi (India)

– GM Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands)

– GM Awonder Liang (USA)

– GM Nihal Sarin (India)

– GM Ray Robson (USA)

– GM Murali Karthikeyan (India)

– GM Pranav Venkatesh (India)