HYATT Hotel Chennai Fire: Players had to leave the hotel due to late night fire, first round postponed

The third edition of Chennai Grand Masters 2025 has been adjourned for a day after a fire on Tuesday night at the tournament site Hayat Regency Hotel. Although the players will return to the venue on Wednesday, the tournament now officially started on Thursday, August 7. The first round will be played on the day which was originally set as Rest Day. As a result, the event of 20 players will continue on August 11 without any break.

Also read this: For Modi, Putin did what India was waiting, Ajit Doval revealed, Trump will get up on hearing

After setting fire to Hyatt Regency, the guests were immediately evacuated and no casualties occurred, as fire fighting and rescue services reached the spot and extinguished the fire within an hour. All the players and officials staying there had to vacate the building.

Also read this: Will Trump meet Putin in the coming days? Cremilan’s answer to this

This year Chennai is the third edition of the Grand Masters, which is considered to be India’s strongest classical chess tournament. The tournament will run from 6 August to 15 August. The game will start from IST every day at 2:00 pm, except the last day, the day it will start a few hours before. Top international players like Grandmaster Arjun Arigasi and Grandmaster Aneesh Giri will participate in it.

Close to midnight there was an emergency in Hotel Hyatt Regency in Chennai. Due to an electric fire on the 9th floor, the entire hotel became smoky and everyone had to evacuate the hotel before it became difficult to breathe.

All the players of Chennai Grand Masters in the… pic.twitter.com/nBqTRc45zW

— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) August 6, 2025