Top seed Arjun Erigaisi secured a come-from-behind win with black pieces over Vidit Gujrathi in the first round of the second edition of the Chennai Grandmasters classical chess tournament at the Anna Centenary Library here on Tuesday.
Vidit squandered his advantage and, when the game seemed poised for a draw, blundered to concede Arjun the win.
“He must have been winning somewhere, for sure. I didn’t see a win (for himself) and felt it should be a loss somewhere. But in the end, it was almost a draw, and then he blundered. I took my chance and knew that I was the one playing for the win. I then calculated everything till the win,” Arjun said after the win.
Playing with white, Aravindh Chidambaram and Levon Aronian had to settle for draws. Aravindh had to be defensive almost throughout the game, while Aronian misplayed from an advantageous position.
Aravindh was content that he was able to defend well for a draw.
“It was a tough game. I was on the defending side throughout the game. It’s not a good sign. Even though I was with white, my opening did not go well. But I’m happy with the way I defended,” he said.
Aronian, despite his misplay, said it was a strategically interesting contest overall. “There were a lot of subtleties,” he added.
In the Challengers section, Vaishali Rameshbabu initially put Leon Luke Mendonca under pressure. But she slowed down then and gave Leon the time to get into a position to make decisive moves for an eventual win.
The results (day one, Indians unless mentioned): Masters: Aravindh Chithambaram (0.5) drew with Amin Tabatabaei (Irn, 0.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 1) bt Parham Maghsoodloo (Irn, 0); Vidit Gujrathi (0) lost to Arjun Erigaisi (1); Levon Aronian (US, 0.5) drew with Alexey Sarana (Ser, 0.5).
Challengers: Vaishali Rameshbabu (0) lost to Leon Luke Mendonca (1); Raunak Sadhwani (1) bt Karthikeyan Murali (0); M. Pranesh (0) lost to Abhimanyu Puranik (1); V. Pranav (1) bt Harika Dronavalli (0).
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