‘Lucky’ Arjun tastes another win


Fortunate: Erigaisi spent a lot of time trying to find a way out of a poor move, but pulled through. | Photo :  R. Ravindran

Fortunate: Erigaisi spent a lot of time trying to find a way out of a poor move, but pulled through. | Photo :  R. Ravindran

Arjun Erigaisi felt he got “lucky” once again as he secured his second win from three rounds versus Serbia’s Alexey Sarana in the second edition of the Chennai Grandmasters classical chess tournament at the Anna Centenary Library here on Thursday.

In a game where both were grappling for an outright advantage till a point, Erigaisi made a move that he regretted after the match.

“It was a big blow for me and I spent a lot of time (trying to find a way out). I didn’t play the best move. And I played pretty poorly from there. I was also seriously down on time. I thought I was in a very bad shape. I was very relieved when he, from being in a better position, played himself into a practically unpleasant situation. Maybe he should have spent more time there and tried to find a way. But he played a couple of moves fast. Maybe there still was a way for him. But it wasn’t easy,” said Erigaisi after his win.

The win propelled Erigaisi to World No. 2 (2805.8) in the live ratings.

After two straight defeats, Vidit Gujrathi would have felt better with his draw against Aravindh Chithambaram.

Levon Aronian claimed his first win as Iranian Parham Maghsoodloo got into time trouble and blundered.

“I think the opening phase worked well for me. I thought that his play was rather strange. Then, I managed to press him on time. At some point, he was so low on time and he blundered,” said Aronian.

The results (third round, Indians unless mentioned): Masters: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 1.5) lost to Amin Tabatabaei (Irn, 2.5); Vidit Gujrathi (0.5) drew with Aravindh Chithambaram (1.5); Levon Aronian (US, 2) bt Parham Maghsoodloo (Irn, 1); Alexey Sarana (Ser, 0.5) lost to Arjun Erigaisi (2.5).

Challengers: Raunak Sadhwani (2) drew with Leon Luke Mendonca (2.5); M. Pranesh (1.5) bt Vaishali Rameshbabu (0.5); V. Pranav (3) bt Karthikeyan Murali (0.5); Harika Dronavalli (0.5) drew with Abhimanyu Puranik (1.5).



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