German Vincent Keymer played out a draw against Vidit Gujrathi in the fifth round of the Masters section in the Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters chess tournament 2025, and remain ahead of the field, here on Monday.

Local lad V. Pranav, the current World junior champion, played a solid game to hold top seed Arjun Erigaisi in 78 moves which allowed Keymer to retain his advantage.

It was another creditable result for the 18-year-old, who had drawn with Vidit and Anish Giri in the previous rounds.

“I was preparing a lot for d4. I did not have a lot of time to prepare for e4. This line, which I played today, I had originally planned for Anish Giri a few days back. I thought it would be a good plan against Arjun, too,” said Pranav.

The 20-year-old German Keymer, who has an one-point lead in the standings, faces Arjun with white pieces in the sixth round in a battle between the top two.

Nihal Sarin and American Awonder Liang played out a quick 29-move draw while the Anish Giri-Karthikeyan Murali encounter too ended in a stalemate.

Dutchman Jorden van Foreest scored the only win of the day in the Masters section, putting it across American Ray Robson

Abhimanyu still in lead

In the Challengers section, Abhimanyu Puranik outwitted D. Harika in 39 moves in an English Opening game for his fourth straight victory and maintain his one-point lead at the top of the table.

His meeting with M. Pranesh in the sixth round could have a bearing on how their fortunes pan out for the rest of the tournament.

Pranesh and Leon Luke Mendonca settled for a draw in their game.

The results (fifth round): Masters: Karthikeyan Murali (2.5) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 2.5), Vincent Keymer (Ger, 4) drew with Vidit Gujrathi (2.5), V. Pranav (2) drew with Arjun Erigaisi (3), Nihal Sarin (2) drew with Awonder Liang (USA, 2.5), Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 2) bt Ray Robson (USA, 2).

Challengers: R. Vaishali (1) lost to G.B. Harshavardhan (1.5), D. Harika (0.5) lost to Abhimanyu Puranik (4.5), M. Pranesh (3.5) drew with Leon Luke Mendonca (3.5), Aryan Chopra (1.5) drew with B. Adhiban (2.5), Diptayan Ghosh (3.5) drew with Pa. Iniyan (3).

Sixth round pairings: Masters: Anish vs. Karthikeyan, Vidit vs. Keymer, Arjun vs. Pranav, Liang vs. Nihal, van Foreest vs. Robson.

Challengers: Harshavardhan vs. Iniyan, Adhiban vs. Diptayan, Mendonca vs. Aryan, Abhimanyu vs. Pranesh, Vaishali vs. Harika.