World Championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov was approached for the 2026 Chennai Grand Masters, with organisers keeping the door open for the Uzbek to feature in a future edition of the tournament.
Sindarov, who will face India’s D. Gukesh for the World title, would be a notable addition should he feature in a future edition. The move to rope in the Uzbek, however, was not the only talking point surrounding the fourth edition, which is being held without the Challengers section.
Sreekar Channapragada, co-founder of MGD1, the organiser of the Chennai Grand Masters, said Sindarov had been sounded out even before he became Gukesh’s next World Championship opponent.
“We had contacted Sindarov for this year’s tournament itself, but it did not work out because of the scheduling and his other commitments,” Channapragada told Sportstar.
Channapragada said assembling a field of this calibre was not straightforward, with organisers having to consider player availability, ratings, the FIDE calendar and other practical factors.
“When you are looking at players of this level, their calendars are planned well in advance. There is the World Championship cycle, the Olympiad and several other major tournaments. It is not simply a matter of deciding on a name and bringing the player in,” he said.
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The tournament has grown steadily since its inaugural edition, which was held when Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi were chasing crucial FIDE Circuit points in their bid to qualify for the Candidates. While that gave the event immediate relevance, MGD1 co-founder Manu Gurtu said the aim was always to build something more permanent.
“From the outset, we wanted to build a world-class tournament that would become a permanent fixture on the international chess calendar and consistently bring the world’s best players to India,” Gurtu said.
Four editions later, Gurtu said the Chennai Grand Masters had “established its own identity” and become a tournament that leading players look forward to competing in.
Why the Challengers section was dropped
The absence of the Challengers section was one of the biggest changes to this year’s tournament. It was originally introduced to give emerging Indian players a strong closed event and a route into the following year’s Masters section, and had quickly become an important part of the competition.
Channapragada said the decision to drop it this year was driven by practical and financial reasons, rather than a move away from developing Indian talent.
“The Challengers was definitely a successful concept, but conducting two high-level tournaments simultaneously involves a significant increase in the budget, accommodation, logistics and the overall operational requirements,” he said.
The organisers instead chose to concentrate their resources on strengthening the Masters field and improving the overall tournament experience. Channapragada added that bringing elite players together had become more difficult because of the packed chess calendar, visa and travel issues, and conflicts in different parts of the world that can affect player movement and planning.
The fourth edition is also being held without the backing of the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT), which had supported the tournament in its first two editions.
Channapragada acknowledged SDAT’s role in helping the event take shape, but said MGD1 had to adopt a different funding and partnership model this year to maintain the tournament’s standards.
“SDAT’s support in the initial editions was extremely important. It helped us launch the tournament and build it to a certain level. The association did not continue this year, and we had to look at other ways of making the event happen,” he added.
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Published on Jul 22, 2026