Miami online rapid chess: Arjun faces Aronian in quarterfinals

Arjun Erigaisi finished second in the league stage of the FTX Road to Miami after a draw against Norway’s Aryan Tari in the final round.

FILE PHOTO: Arjun Erigaisi. | Photo Credit: Ramanan V V@Chennai

Arjun Erigaisi will take on Levon Aronian in the quarterfinals of the FTX Road to Miami online rapid chess tournament after finishing second in the league stage on Wednesday.

Leading the table following the 14th and penultimate round, Arjun drew the final round with Norway’s Aryan Tari after Samuel Sevian defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

These results gave Sevian the top spot at 32 points and Arjun finished second with 31. Jan-Krzysztof Duda (28), Richard Rapport (27), Jeffery Xiong, Anish Giri (24 each), Levon Aronian (22) and Wei Yi (19) also made it to the quarterfinals.

The quarterfinal line-up is: Sevian-Wei Yi; Arjun-Aronian; Duda-Giri and Rapport-Xiong.

The finalists will get to play in the eight-player $310,000 FTX Crypto Cup Major in Miami, Florida, next month.

On the final day of the league, Arjun drew with Giri, defeated Xiong and proved equal to Tari. As a result, Arjun ended up with nine wins, four draws, two losses and $7750.

His clash with Aronian will be their repeat clash of the Goldmoney Asian Rapid quarter finals last year. Aronian prevailed in the blitz tie-breaker and went on to win the title.

After earning an opportunity to avenge that defeat, Arjun reflected on his performance so far and said, “Obviously there was some luck but I was overall happy with the way I was playing.

“I believe before the pandemic itself I was somewhat underrated and I think I deserved to be 2600 then, but it didn’t happen. So I was not surprised that I had 2600, but the rise after that was pretty good, and Magnus (Carlsen) mentioning that I can hit 2700 soon definitely boosted my confidence.”