Aravindh Chithambaram fights off Levon Aronian, Arjun Erigaisi for maiden Chennai Grand Masters title | Chess News

GM Aravindh Chithambaram, buoyed a stunning turn of fortunes in the last two rounds walked away with the Chennai Grand Masters title here on Monday. On an action packed day at the Anna Centenary Library, the Masters category witnessed a three-way tie between Aravindh, Levon Aronian and Arjun Erigaisi. It led to a play-off, where Aravindh defeated Aronian. He won the first blitz and drew the second with black pieces to be crowned champion of the second edition.
In the Challengers category, GM V Pranav who remained unbeaten through the tournament, clinched the title.
On Monday morning, Aravindh had brought himself into the title contention after posting a second successive win as overnight leaders Erigaisi and Aronian ended up drawing their final round of matches. Playing with black pieces Aravindh managed to dominate his final match against Iran’s Parham Maghsoodloo. Aravindh took control of the game after Parham traded queens in the 24th move and from there on he just built on the advantage in a knight-pawn ending to finish in joint top spot.
“I never thought I would be playing the tie-breaker because winning with black wasn’t going to be easy with Parham,” Aravindh said. “I didn’t think much about it. I also didn’t put too much of pressure on myself (because of that). Either Aronian or Erigaisi deserved to win it. They probably had more decisive games than me,” he added.
GM Aravindh Chithambaram (left), buoyed a stunning turn of fortunes in the last two rounds walked away with the Chennai Grand Masters title on Monday. (Express Photo)
Aronian settled for a quick draw against Amin Tabatabaei while Arjun couldn’t get past Maxie Vachier-Lagrave in 38 moves.
Since Aravindh topped the table with a superior tie-break score, Aronian and Erigaisi had to face-off in a two game blitz play-off. With both managing a win each with black pieces, it went into a sudden-death.
Aronian then bid 6.40 minutes to play black and held Arjun to a draw to set up the final against Aravindh.
In the title clash, it was even-stevens in the first round before Aravindh pounced on a later error from Aronian to win. Then playing with black, he held on for a draw.
“Don’t know what happened but it was a fighting game. The situation demanded me to play for the win but I was first and foremost solid. Playing with these guys itself is an achievement for me… after some of the moves, I do go to the washroom to tell myself that actually happened,” Aravindh said.
Since three players were tied on 4.5 points after 7 classical rounds, all three will take home a cash prize of Rs 11 lakh each.

The results (seventh round, Indians unless mentioned): Masters: Levon Aronian (US, 4.5) drew with Amin Tabatabaei (Iran, 4); Alexey Sarana (Ser, 2.5) drew with Vidit Gujrathi (2.5); Arjun Erigaisi (4.5) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 3); Parham Maghsoodloo (Irn, 2.5) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (4.5).
Challengers: V. Pranav (5.5) drew with Leon Luke Mendonca (5); D. Harika (2) drew with M. Pranesh (3.5); Abhimanyu Puranik (3.5) drew with Raunak Sadhwani (4); Karthikeyan Murali (3.5) bt R. Vaishali (1).