1st Chola Chess GM 2026 R7: Sarbartho Stuns Sayantan; Narayanan Claims Sole Lead

Sarbartho Strikes Again

Sarbartho Mani kicked off the tournament with back-to-back victories against IM Shahil Dey and GM Dimitris Alexakis. In the next two rounds, he suffered two consecutive defeats. He bounced back in style in round 7 to win against GM Sayantan Das with white pieces. Currently, Sarbartho is on 4/7 points with 3 wins and 2 draws; in the penultimate round, he is facing IM Budhidharma Nayaka of Indonesia.

GM R.B. Ramesh came to the tournament hall to see the games, and he was looking at Sarbartho's game, where he is outplaying GM Sayantan Das in the same-coloured bishop endgame

GM SL Narayanan played an excellent game to beat GM Pranesh M on the top board. Pranesh and Narayanan are also very close friends and shared a light-hearted moment in the end

Check out the final moments and Interview with Narayanan

Important Results of Round 6

On the top board, Pranesh suffered a loss against Narayanan

GM Aravindh Chithambaram defeated GM Vignesh N.R. with black pieces to reach 5/7 points

GM Iniyan Panneerselvam defeated GM Aleksej Aleksandrov with white pieces

FM Avirat Chauhan defeated IM Aradhya Garg to keep his norm chances alive

FM Aarit Kapil suffered a tough loss against GM Levan Pantsulaia

Stories of the day

India's No. 1 GM Praggnanandhaa made the ceremonial 1st move and joined the commentary panel for the 7th round

India's No. 1 R. Praggnanandhaa came in to make the ceremonial move for Round 7 of the 1st Chola Chess GM Open 2026 in Chennai! Check out the moments of Praggnanandhaa coming in, making the move, and a detailed interview with Praggnanandhaa.

Chief Arbiter IA Paul Arokia Raj with IM Sarvanan

In the evening, there was a Diwali celebration at the venue, Welcomhotel by ITC

Editor's Note

Solve Tactics from this tournament on ChessRanga

Round 7 Recap

The Round 7 recap will be uploaded soon.

Round 7 Results

Bo.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg
1	GM	Narayanan, S L	2557	4½	1 - 0	5	GM	Pranesh, M	2674
2	GM	Ilamparthi A R,	2523	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Karthikeyan, Murali	2647
3	GM	Mendonca, Leon Luke	2629	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Harshavardhan, G B	2529
4	GM	Vignesh, N R	2513	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr.	2677
5	GM	Mayank, Chakraborty	2511	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Ter-Sahakyan, Samvel	2613
6	GM	Iniyan, Pa	2581	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Aleksandrov, Aleksej	2435
7	GM	Savchenko, Boris	2492	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Aronyak, Ghosh	2546
8	GM	Afanasiev, Nikita	2543	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Suleymenov, Alisher	2502
9	GM	Bernadskiy, Vitaliy	2517	4	1 - 0	4	IM	Budhidharma, Nayaka	2397
10	GM	Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	2562	3½	1 - 0	4	FM	Madhvendra, Pratap Sharma	2389

Details

Round 8 Preview

In the penultimate round, sole leader GM S.L. Narayanan will face GM Leon Mendonca with white pieces. On the second board, top seed Aravindh Chithambaram will face Ilamparthi A.R. India's 97th GM Harshavardhan G.B. will face Pranesh M. on the 3rd board. The penultimate round will start at 2 PM IST on 6th November 2026. Catch the live commentary on Chola Chess YT or RB Ramesh YT Channels.

Round 8 Pairings

Bo.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg
1	GM	Narayanan, S L	2557	5½		5	GM	Mendonca, Leon Luke	2629
2	GM	Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr.	2677	5		5	GM	Ilamparthi A R,	2523
3	GM	Harshavardhan, G B	2529	5		5	GM	Pranesh, M	2674
4	GM	Karthikeyan, Murali	2647	5		5	GM	Iniyan, Pa	2581
5	GM	Ter-Sahakyan, Samvel	2613	4½		5	GM	Bernadskiy, Vitaliy	2517
6	GM	Suleymenov, Alisher	2502	4½		4½	GM	Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	2562
7	GM	Aronyak, Ghosh	2546	4½		4½	GM	Pantsulaia, Levan	2498
8	GM	Afanasiev, Nikita	2543	4½		4½	GM	Savchenko, Boris	2492
9	GM	Aswath, S	2540	4½		4½	GM	Gharibyan, Mamikon	2481
10	GM	Paichadze, Luka	2471	4½		4½	IM	Vaz Ethan,	2525

Details

Live Stream

Check out the Round 7 live stream and commentary by GM R. B. Ramesh and FM Gaurav Bakliwal

Photos and Videos

Photos Videos Interviews

Replay Round 7 Available Games

Venue: Welcomhotel by ITC

Photo Credit: Hotel Website

Tournament Hall | Photo: Devansh Singh

Check out the venue tour | Video: ChessBase India

Live Coverage

Games, Videos and Much More

Playing Schedule

Playing Field

34 Grandmasters, 3 Woman Grandmasters, 21 International Masters, 3 Woman International Masters, 22 FIDE Masters, 2 FIDE Masters, and 1 Candidate Master are taking part in this 9-Day 9-Round Classical FIDE Rating Chess Tournament. The time control is 90 Min /40 Move + 30 min/end + 30 sec per move, starting from move 1.

Important Links

Chola Chess: Official Site, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube

Regulations, Results and Standings, Tournament Details, Live Coverage

1st Chola Chess GM 2026 R7: Sarbartho Stuns Sayantan; Narayanan Claims Sole Lead