D Gukesh signs off with a defeat as fellow Indian Grandmaster Nihal Sarin wins Menorca Masters 2026

Reigning Classical world champion Gukesh Dommaraju signed off with a defeat the hands of Hungarian Grandmaster Richard Rapport to finish joint-third at the fifth Menorca Open in Ciutadella de Menorca, Spain. Fellow Indian Grandmaster Nihal Sarin, meanwhile, played out a draw against Ukraine's Ruslan Ponomariov to win finish the 10-round event as the sole leader and be crowned champion.

Despite playing with white pieces, Gukesh resigned in 53 moves under time pressure to end his campaign with a defeat, losing three of his last four games in his first outing since the Prague Chess Festival Masters tournament in Prague last month.

Sarin had earlier completed a tournament double against his compatriot, beating him for the second successive time in the eighth round on Saturday. It was his second major triumph this year, with the 21-year-old having won the rapid section of the Tata Steel Chess India tournament earlier this year.

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GM Pentala Harikrishna, the third Indian competing in the event, finished at the bottom of the six-player table with 4 points – half-a-point behind the world champion and American-Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez Perez.

Another tournament ends on a disappointing note for Gukesh

Gukesh, who is going through a prolonged lean patch spanning nearly a year, had begun his campaign with consecutive draws against Dominguez Perez and Ponomariov before suffering the first of his two defeats against Sarin in the third round.

The 19-year-old would end his brief winless run by beating Harikrishna in the fourth round and experienced a period of resurgence in the next two rounds, collecting a draw against Rapport before defeating Dominguez-Perez. Gukesh, however, failed to carry the momentum gained from this phase into the final leg of the tournament.

Though he did complete a double against Harikrishna in the penultimate round on Saturday, winning the tournament had appeared somewhat out of reach for Gukesh at this point, especially considering Sarin's 10-round meeting with Ponomariov was going to decide the champion with the latter on 5 points.

Rapport was level on 4.5 points with Gukesh before their second meeting of the tournament on Sunday, but could not have done much about taking the trophy home despite beating the world champion.

Gukesh had recently withdrawn from the upcoming Grand Chess Tour but had maintained that he would be competing in the Rapid and Blitz events in Warsaw and Zagreb as a wildcard entrant starting next month.