World Rapid Chess C’ships: Gallant Arjun misses podium, finishes a creditable fifth; Nihal Sarin ninth

Listed as the 37th strongest player in a field of 178, Arjun finished a creditable joint fourth, fifth overall, after scoring nine points from 13 rounds.

Arjun Erigaisi missed podium finish, ended on the fifth position in the World Rapid Chess Championship. | Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ

Arjun Erigaisi’s gallant performance fell short of giving him a podium finish before Nihal Sarin joined him among the top 10 finishers in the World rapid chess championship at Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday.

Listed as the 37th strongest player in a field of 178, Arjun finished a creditable joint fourth, fifth overall, after scoring nine points from 13 rounds.

Magnus Carlsen regained the title by aggregating 10 points after making light of a surprise defeat to Vladislav Artemiev in the 11th round.

German youngster Vincent Keymer and USA’s Fabiano Caruana tied for second place at 9.5 points and finished in that order. Russian Daniil Dubov finished fourth, one ahead of Arjun, by heading a five-way tie at nine points.

Nihal, undefeated against four higher-rated rivals on the final day, topped a 14-way tie at 8.5 points to finish ninth, one ahead of defending champion Nodirbek Abdusattarov of Uzbekistan.

On the final day, Arjun started with a painful loss to Artemiev after a blunder in a theoretically drawn position on the penultimate move of their 131-move marathon battle.

To the credit of Arjun, he bounced right back by stunning Russian Alexander Grischuk, drew with Ian Nepomniachtchi and defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov for a highly creditable finish.

INDIANS’ STANDINGS:

Open (from 13 rounds):

5. Arjun Erigaisi (9 points), 9. Nihal Sarin (8.5), 15. Vidit Gujrathi (8.5), 20. Surya Shekhar Ganguly (8.5), 33. Raunak Sadhwani (8), 78. P. Harikrishna (7), 79. V. Pranav (7), 82. B. Adhiban (7), 86. S. L. Narayanan (7), 91. Abhimanyu Puranik (6.5), 105. Aravindh Chithambaram (6), 106. Sankalp Gupta (6), 122. Harsha Bharathkoti (5.5), 133. N. Srinath (5.5), 144. Arjun Kalyan (5)