Chennai Grand Masters 2025: Vincent finds the key to future greatness

German Grandmaster Vincent Keymer remembers following the 2013 World Chess Championship final as an eight-year-old.

In a landmark clash, Magnus Carlsen took down reigning champion Viswanathan Anand to claim his first world title. “It really stuck with me as a memory,” says Keymer.

Nearly 12 years later, Keymer had a chance to be at the site of Carlsen’s coronation – the Hyatt Regency – while competing at the Chennai Grand Masters 2025.

“I’ve been to India a few times. What’s special this time is that we are playing in the same hotel where Vishy and Magnus played,” says the 20-year-old, who steamrolled through the event to win by two points – a surprising margin in a Super GM tournament.

Keymer, who entered the tournament as the third seed, led from start to finish, subduing his opponents with a relentless attacking game. He ended his campaign unbeaten, winning five of his nine games.

Dutch GM Anish Giri, who finished joint second in Chennai, opined that freestyle chess has unlocked a more potent version of Keymer.

The German GM had started the year with a remarkable win at the Weissenhaus Freestyle Grand Slam, where he toppled some of the world’s best, including Carlsen.

“Freestyle will probably be remembered as the thing that turned Vincent into a monster. Because I feel he has discovered that he was always very reliant on openings.

“So, in freestyle, Vincent must have seen that even without any openings, he’s very good. Now, he plays completely differently. He’s no longer as predictable. He won a lot of games with Black here,” said Giri.

Keymer’s storming run in Chennai earned him over 20 rating points, helping him enter the top 10 in world rankings (live rating) for the first time in his young career.

While Keymer cruised through to what he believes is his biggest win in a classical chess tournament, the Indian contingent mostly struggled to cope.

Top seed Arjun Erigaisi fell away after a strong start, hampered partly by an illness which took hold midway through the tournament. Nihal Sarin and Vidit Gujrathi offered glimpses of brilliance but were limited by their inconsistency.

Karthikeyan Murali, though, provided a silver lining for the Indian angle. The 26-year-old GM, roped in as a last-minute replacement in the main draw, battled hard to finish joint second – only Keymer managed to beat him in the tournament.

“I think Karthikeyan was excellent. He showed a lot of ambition despite being thrust into the Masters section at the last minute. It is a very noteworthy performance,” said Indian Grandmaster Srinath Narayanan, the chief organiser of the Chennai Grand Masters.

Karthikeyan’s confident performance also underlined the event’s central objective, as worded by Srinath.

“The very fabric of the tournament is to provide an opportunity for those who wouldn’t otherwise get it and for it to be a stepping stone towards reaching much higher heights. We wanted to make a difference in the careers of certain players and to provide that missing opportunity,” said Srinath.

The 31-year-old was content with how the third edition of the Chennai Grand Masters unfolded, while suggesting a desire for it to get bigger.

“I think we have improved on several aspects from the previous year. And similarly, we certainly want to keep improving in every aspect – the field, playing hall, spectator experience, the media experience, the broadcast experience – and every small and major thing. We want to keep making it better,” said Srinath.

An obvious way to scale it up would be to rope in even bigger names, feels leading Indian chess coach RB Ramesh.

“I think this tournament is very good from the Indian perspective. Maybe the next step is to have most of the players foreigners, with only two or three Indians. Like, Magnus, Hikaru [Nakamura], all these guys.

“So maybe out of ten, there will be seven such players. And maybe three or four Indians. Get the very best players here in a classical format. Even this time, if [R] Praggnanandhaa, [D] Gukesh, Arvind [Chidambaram] were here, it would have been amazing,” adds Ramesh.

Srinath confirmed that this is something they are considering for the next edition, while asserting that the tournament will continue to retain the current playing field balance.

“We will try to schedule it much more in advance next year so that we get better player availability. [But] There is no intention to reduce the number of Indian players.

“We usually have four Indian players and six foreign players, and we are definitely not reducing it to fewer than four. But we will try to have a stronger field,” added Srinath.

In tune with the expansion plans, Chennai Grand Masters 2025 garnered a riveting response from the local fans.

Throughout the nine-day event, fans thronged the commentary/viewing area. This included young, aspiring chess players, who constantly engaged with the commentators and participants, discussing possible moves and complex positions.

The competing Grandmasters, after each round, were often greeted by eager fans waiting in serpentine queues for autographs and photos.

As expected, Keymer was an in-demand figure in the fan zone. His allure only grew throughout the tournament as he enthralled nearly everyone with a quality of chess that whispered world champion potential.

Back in 2023, India’s D Gukesh banked heavily on a win here at the inaugural edition of the Chennai Grand Masters to qualify for the Candidates. He would then go on to win the World Championship, with Keymer pitching in as one of his seconds.

With his title win at the Chennai Grand Masters 2025, at the same venue where Carlsen assumed his throne, Keymer is lining up the pieces for a parallel that won’t be too difficult to trace.

Published on Aug 20, 2025