2nd Chennai GM R3: Arjun Erigaisi swindles Alexey Sarana, now World no.2
Arjun Erigaisi continues to play with fire and avoids getting burned at 2nd Chennai Grand Masters 2024. The India no.1 swindled Alexey Sarana (SRB) who missed a win and eventually lost the game after a terrible blunder. It allowed Arjun to not only stay in the lead with M Amin Tabatabaei (IRI) but also become the new World no.2 in live ratings. Vidit Gujrathi had a well contested draw against Aravindh Chithambaram. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) neglected one pawn too many which cost him the game against Tabatabaei. Levon Aronian (USA) squeezed the life out of the uncharacteristic cramped play by Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI). Pranav V defeated Karthikeyan Murali to emerge sole leader in the Challengers by scoring a hat-trick. Round 4 starts tomorrow at 3 p.m. IST. Photos: Anmol Bhargav
Pranav emerges sole leader in Challengers, Aronian squeezes Maghsoodloo
Arjun Erigaisi and M Amin Tabatabaei are the coleaders in the Masters section 2.5/3. Levon Aronian is the only player at 2/3. He is followed by Aravindh Chithambaram and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave at 50% score 1.5/3 each. In the Challengers section, Pranav Venkatesh has taken sole lead 3/3. Leon Luke Mendonca drew with Raunak Sadhwani. It moved Leon and Raunak to second and third place in the standings with a scor 2.5/3 and 2/3 each respectively.
Masters: Arjun - Sarana: 1-0
Arjun Erigaisi (2799) had never beaten Alexey Sarana (SRB, 2679) in a Classical rated game. Sarana won their first encounter over 8.5 years ago. Their next two Classical games ended in draws including a 16-move earlier this year. Sarana was determined to beat Arjun for the second time.
21.Bxf6 gxf6 22.Qh5 the position become slightly scary for Black Kf8 23.Bb3 Rc6 24.Qxh7 Rac8 25.Rcd1 d4 26.h4 d3 27.h5 Qd4??
White needed to play 28.b5! first to remove the support of the bishop to c8-rook before 28.Re4. However, White immediately played 28.Re4 and his window of opportunity was over. 28...Qb2 29.Ba4 Rc1 30.Qh6+ Ke7 now exchanging everything on c1 was the plausible continuation. Instead, White blundered with a strange queen retreat threatening Qxa7 31.Qe3?? Rxd1+ and now Black is winning 32.Bxd1 Qc1 33.Qxa7+ Rc7 34.Qxa6 Qxd1+ 35.Kh2 Qxh5+ 36.Kg3 d2 37.Rd4 Qe5+ and it's over. This loss will haunt Sarana for a long time as he missed the chance to beat the World no.3 who is now World no.2 in live ratings.
Vachier-Lagrave - Tabatabaei: 0-1
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 2737) and M Amin Tabatabei (IRI, 2686) played only one Classical rated a little over three years ago. MVL won that game. However, this time Tabatabaei delivered the equalizer. First White decided not to much about the loss of a4-pawn, after a few moves he dropped the e4-pawn in queen and bishop endgame for no reason.
34.Kf1?? turned out to be the final mistake Qxe4-+ 35.Qd7 Qd3+ Black forces the queen trade as the resultant same color bishop endgame is winning for him due to being ahead by two pawns 36.Qxd3 cxd3 37.f3 e4 38.fxe4 Bg3 and it's over as the king cannot get into action and White cannot afford a bishop trade either, then d3-pawn will run away.
Aronian - Parham: 1-0
Levon Aronian (USA, 2739) drew with Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI, 2712) at the same event last year. His last Classical against Parham was over four years at FIDE World Cup 2019. Early in the opening, Black went wrong 8...h6?! It create a hook for his opponent to later create a target. Aronian obviously figured it out and capitalized on it.
9.a3 Ne5 10.b4 Bd7 11.Bc2 Nfg4 12.Ne1 Nf6 13.Rb1 b6 14.b5 Bc8 15.f4 Ned7 16.Rf3 Ne8 Black is moving all is pieces backwards without completing the development 17.Rh3 Ndf6 18.Nf3 Bb7 19.Qe1 Rc8 20.Qg3 Kh8 21.Bd2 White has a lot of time to improve his pieces and the position Ng8 22.Re1 Nef6 23.Nd1 Nh7 24.Ne3 Rc7 25.Ng4 Nhf6 with the lack of space, Black is not able to move his pieces a lot 26.Ne3 Nh7 27.Qf2 d5 28.e5 d4 29.Ng4 Re8 these positions are not easy to defend especially when you are running out of time.
38...h5?? turned out to be the final mistake for Black. 39.Nxh7 Kxh7 40.f5!+- Bg7 41.f6 Bf8 42.Rxh5+ White just crashes through gxh5 43.Qh4 Ra1 44.Qxh5+ Nh6 45.Nxh6 Rxe1+ 46.Bxe1 and Black resigned as checkmate is unstoppable.
Challengers: Pranav - Karthikeyan: 1-0
Pranav Venkatesh (2602) and Karthikeyan Murali (2625) reached a rook and knight vs rook and bishop endgame with few pawns on each side. Ideally, it should have ended in a draw, but in a practical game, anything can and did happen.
Black needed to capture the h2-pawn to stay in the game Instead, he played 51...Rb3?? which ended things in a hurry. Pranav correctly found 52.Kf4 Kh3 53.Ng5+ Kxh2 54.Nxe4 fxe4 55.Rxa7 Rxc3 56.Kxe4 despite having a rook-pawn, White is winning the rook endgame.
Pranesh - Vaishali
Pranesh played an excellent move 23.g4! It is counter-intuitive. However, that is exactly what the position needed 23...Qd7 24.Re6 Rcf8 25.Rfe1 Rf7 26.Qe4 Kf8? 27.Qxg6 Qb5?? 28.Rxe7!+- and it became the point of no return for Black.
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Replay live stream
Replay Masters Round 3 games
Replay Challengers Round 3 games
Masters Round 3 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | PGN | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 2737 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 0 - 1 | GM | Tabatabaei, M. Amin | 2686 | 8 | PGN | ||
| 2 | 3 | 2739 | GM | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | ½ - ½ | GM | Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr. | 2706 | 1 | PGN | ||
| 3 | 4 | 2739 | GM | Aronian, Levon | 1 - 0 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | 2712 | 7 | PGN | ||
| 4 | 5 | 2679 | GM | Sarana, Alexey | 0 - 1 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | 2799 | 6 | PGN |
Standings after Round 3
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | RtgI | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | GM | Tabatabaei, M. Amin | IRI | 2686 | 2,5 | 0 | 2,75 | 2 | 1 | |
| 2 | 6 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | IND | 2799 | 2,5 | 0 | 2,00 | 2 | 2 | |
| 3 | 4 | GM | Aronian, Levon | USA | 2739 | 2 | 0 | 2,50 | 1 | 0 | |
| 4 | 1 | GM | Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr. | IND | 2706 | 1,5 | 0,5 | 2,25 | 0 | 0 | |
| 5 | 2 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | FRA | 2737 | 1,5 | 0,5 | 1,75 | 1 | 0 | |
| 6 | 7 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | IRI | 2712 | 1 | 0 | 0,50 | 1 | 0 | |
| 7 | 5 | GM | Sarana, Alexey | SRB | 2679 | 0,5 | 0 | 1,00 | 0 | 0 | |
| 8 | 3 | GM | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | IND | 2739 | 0,5 | 0 | 0,75 | 0 | 0 |
Round 4 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | PGN | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | 2686 | GM | Tabatabaei, M. Amin | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | 2799 | 6 | ||||
| 2 | 7 | 2712 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | GM | Sarana, Alexey | 2679 | 5 | ||||
| 3 | 1 | 2706 | GM | Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr. | GM | Aronian, Levon | 2739 | 4 | ||||
| 4 | 2 | 2737 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | GM | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2739 | 3 |
Challengers Round 3 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | PGN | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 2677 | GM | Sadhwani, Raunak | ½ - ½ | GM | Mendonca, Leon Luke | 2631 | 8 | PGN | ||
| 2 | 3 | 2580 | GM | Pranesh, M | 1 - 0 | GM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | 2490 | 1 | PGN | ||
| 3 | 4 | 2602 | GM | Pranav, V | 1 - 0 | GM | Karthikeyan, Murali | 2625 | 7 | PGN | ||
| 4 | 5 | 2493 | GM | Dronavalli, Harika | ½ - ½ | GM | Puranik, Abhimanyu | 2652 | 6 | PGN |
Standings after Round 3
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | RtgI | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | GM | Pranav, V | IND | 2602 | 3 | 0 | 2,50 | 3 | 1 | |
| 2 | 8 | GM | Mendonca, Leon Luke | IND | 2631 | 2,5 | 0 | 2,00 | 2 | 1 | |
| 3 | 2 | GM | Sadhwani, Raunak | IND | 2677 | 2 | 0 | 2,00 | 1 | 0 | |
| 4 | 6 | GM | Puranik, Abhimanyu | IND | 2652 | 1,5 | 1 | 1,75 | 1 | 1 | |
| 5 | 3 | GM | Pranesh, M | IND | 2580 | 1,5 | 0 | 0,75 | 1 | 0 | |
| 6 | 1 | GM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | IND | 2490 | 0,5 | 0 | 1,00 | 0 | 0 | |
| 7 | 5 | GM | Dronavalli, Harika | IND | 2493 | 0,5 | 0 | 0,75 | 0 | 0 | |
| 7 | GM | Karthikeyan, Murali | IND | 2625 | 0,5 | 0 | 0,75 | 0 | 0 |
Round 4 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | PGN | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | 2631 | GM | Mendonca, Leon Luke | GM | Puranik, Abhimanyu | 2652 | 6 | ||||
| 2 | 7 | 2625 | GM | Karthikeyan, Murali | GM | Dronavalli, Harika | 2493 | 5 | ||||
| 3 | 1 | 2490 | GM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | GM | Pranav, V | 2602 | 4 | ||||
| 4 | 2 | 2677 | GM | Sadhwani, Raunak | GM | Pranesh, M | 2580 | 3 |
Where to watch
The entire event will be live-streamed on ChessBase India youtube channel. You can also visit the venue by getting the tickets from Bookmyshow.
