Chennai Grand Masters: Arjun beats Alexey; pips Fabiano to become World No 2

CHENNAI: After reaching 2800 Elo points last month and entering the tournament as top-seed, Arjun Erigaisi lived upto the billing as he defeated Russian Grandmaster Alexey Sarana to climb to Number 2 in the FIDE live ratings here in Chennai on Thursday.

Arjun heads in to the fourth round of the Chennai Grand Masters with a rating of 2805.8, only behind Magnus Carlsen in the classical format. The India Number 1 has also reinforced his lead at the top of the Masters Category alongside Amin Tabatabaei.

Arjun, playing black, replied to Alexey’s Queen’s Pawn Opening by engaging him in the Indian Game before quickly launching an East Indian Defence. Both of them castled their kings early on in the game and locked in tight. But Arjun got the better of Alexey and secured his second win of the tournament.

“When he (Alexey) played h4 and I had (d3 queen d4) I got hopeful, and when I played queen c1 I was sure that I was subjectively in it. I still had to be careful. But when he took on a7 rook c7 I knew that it (win) was in the bag”, said Arjun speaking to the media after his win.

When asked about his thoughts on becoming World No 2 in live rating, the ever-serene Arjun said, “I heard about it, but to be honest it’s not on my mind right now. I’m just happy that I won the game.”

On the next board was the game between US Grandmaster Levon Aronian and Iranian Parham Maghsoodloo, where the former solidified his place in the Masters category by securing an outright win.

Meanwhile, Vidit Gujrati, coming after two successive losses, earned his first points in the tournament with a draw against compatriot Aravindh Chithambaram.

In the Challengers category, one of the first games to get over in the third day was the battle between two Tamil Nadu players Vaishali and Pranesh.

Pranesh, who suffered a defeat against Abhimanyu Puranik in the previous round, pulled off a sensational performance to defeat his fellow state player Vaishali to earn much-needed points.

“It was equal at one point, but I liked my position and she didn’t like hers which made it hard for her to play. So, I was playing fast and she was in time trouble also which helped me, said Pranesh.

The 18-year-old Pranav, currently leads the charts in the Challengers section by defeating Karthikeyan Murali in the third round. This was his third successive win in the tournament.