Alireza Firouzja beat world champion Gukesh Dommaraju in round two of the 2026 Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters to reach 2/2 and open a one-point lead. The Iranian-born French Grandmaster remains the only player with a win after two rounds in the eight-player round-robin.
Firouzja capitalized on a time-trouble error by Gukesh, who played 29...Nf4 instead of the more solid 29...Qe6. The French player later converted a knight endgame after Gukesh's 58...h5 allowed the white king key access.
Firouzja said after the game that he felt he had applied pressure throughout but noted the knight endgame proved difficult for his opponent to defend. The victory lifted him to world number nine on the live rating list.
The remaining games ended in draws. Dmitry Andreikin and Pranesh M agreed to a quick repetition after 18 moves. Nodirbek Abdusattorov survived a difficult opening against Arjun Erigaisi to split the point, while Nihal Sarin held Hans Niemann after a 132-move struggle that included a piece sacrifice.
Round three pairings are set for later today with Firouzja facing Nihal Sarin on the white side of the board.