India’s men beat Kazakhstan 3½-½ in Thursday’s morning round in Abu Dhabi, then lost 3-1 to Russia that evening, M. Pranesh’s first defeat of the event.
M. Pranesh sat down for the 6 pm round on 12 November with three wins from three games. He got up from board three with his first loss of the Asian Nations Chess Cup, beaten by Russia’s Aleksey Grebnev, and India’s men lost a match for the first time in the event.
Russia won 3-1.
The damage was done at both ends of the order. On top board Andrey Esipenko, rated 2683, beat Nihal Sarin, India’s highest-rated player in the team at 2720, according to the board-by-board results posted on Chess-Results. Pranesh, at 2673, lost to the 2608-rated Grebnev. Between them, V. Pranav drew with Daniil Dubov on board two, and Aravindh Chithambaram drew with Arseniy Nesterov on board four, which left India one point from four games against a side that was lower rated on every board.
A clean morning against Kazakhstan
Eight hours earlier the same four players had beaten Kazakhstan 3½-½ in the 10 am round. Nihal drew with Denis Makhnev on top board. Pranav beat Aldiyar Ansat, Pranesh beat Zhandos Agmanov and Aravindh beat Daniyal Sapenov. Pranav, Pranesh and Aravindh are the three Tamil Nadu grandmasters in the side.
That double round left India on 6 match points and 11 game points after four rounds. The regulations give 2 match points for a win and 1 for a draw.
- 10 NovemberRound 1: India beat Lebanon 4-0
- 11 NovemberRound 2: India beat Uzbekistan 2½-1½
- 12 November, 10 amRound 3: India beat Kazakhstan 3½-½
- 12 November, 6 pmRound 4: Russia beat India 3-1
Russia alone at the top after four rounds
Russia lead the 21-team field with 7 match points. Five teams sit one point behind, Malaysia, India, Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia, split only by game points, and India are listed third in the ranking after round 4.
The men’s event runs over nine Swiss rounds at 90 minutes plus 30 seconds a move. There is one round a day from Friday to the finish.
13 November, 4:30 pm IST
Round 5: India against Mongolia (3 pm in Abu Dhabi).
17 November
Round 9, the last round, starts at 11 am local time.
Checked against official sources on 13 November 2026.
Sources
- Asian Nations Chess Cup 2026, Men, Round 4 board pairings and results, 12 November 2026 (Chess-Results)
- Asian Nations Chess Cup 2026, Men, Round 3 board pairings and results, 12 November 2026 (Chess-Results)
- Asian Nations Chess Cup 2026, Men, ranking after Round 4 (Chess-Results)
- Asian Nations Chess Cup 2026, regulations and schedule (official event site)
