Mayank Chaudhary

ALSO READ | How Arjun Erigaisi took down Magnus Carlsen in Hong Kong Team MGD1 started the final day of the Rapid event with a 3.5-2.5 loss to Hexamind, which in hindsight proved costly in their bid to defend the title. The team bounced back, taking down Chessgurukul, the other Indian team in the event, in the following round. Hans Niemann’s Endgame.AI was next to take on Team MGD1 in the penultimate round.

Having played multiple team events like the Olympiad and the Asian Games together in a tightly knit squad, both players are fairly familiar with each other (Fide and Chennai Masters) The fourth round of the UzChess Cup 2026 Masters event saw two Indians pitted against each other. Barring their nationality, there was nothing in particular that resembled how their tournaments had gone. On one side was Arjun Erigaisi, jointly leading the event with a couple of draws and a win sandwiched in between.

A loss to overnight leader Mukhiddin Madaminov put him, India No. 1 Arjun Erigaisi and Uzbek No. 1 Nodirbek Abdusattorov in a three-way lead after the latter two drew their respective third-round games in the UzChess Cup 2026 Masters event in Tashkent on Tuesday. After a frenetic second round that saw all five games produce decisive results, the third round brought back normalcy with four games ending in draws while only a solitary game threw up a result.