Chennai Grand Masters 2024: Arjun Erigaisi has climbed to the second position as per the latest world rankings after he defeated Alexei Sarana at the ongoing Chennai Grand Masters 2024. The youngster also reclaimed his pole position in the Masters category, where Amin Tabatabaei is also leading the charts after three rounds.
The Chennai Grand Masters 2024 is divided into two categories- Masters and Challengers. Due to an average rating of 2729, the Masters round is more competitive this time. Challengers, who are making their debut this season, will allow upcoming Indian talent to participate at high levels.
Arjun began his game by using black pieces in reply to Sarana's queen pawn opening by being involved in the Indian match and then switched to East Indian defense. Both of them used their kings earlier in the game and were involved in a nail-biting thriller but then Arjun took the lead and thus won his second consecutive match. On the back of his brilliant win, he got a 2800 ELO rating and also went past Fabiano Caruana and climbed to the second position.
In the third round of the Masters category, Amin Tabatabaei created a huge upset by beating French Grand Master Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and thus displayed his brilliant tactical skills. At the same time, Levon Aronian thrashed Parham Maghsoodloo, which strengthened his position in the tournament. At the same time, Vidit Gujarathi ended his losing streak by defeating Chennai's homeboy Aravindh Chithambaram.
Pranav V continued his sublime form while playing in the Challengers category of the ongoing tournament by winning his third consecutive match against Karthikeyan Murali. Pranesh M defeated Vaishali Rameshbabu and thus solidified his position. It was a nail-biting thriller between Raunak Sadhwani and Leon Mendonca, which ended in a tie and so did the match between Harika Dronavalli and Abhimanyu Puranik.
Now that three rounds have been completed, Arjun and Tabatabaei are jointly leading the Masters category by 2.5 points, where Aronian is lying in the third position and is 0.5 points behind. At the same time, Pranav is leading the chart in the challengers category with 3.0 points by winning three consecutive matches till now.
The Chennai Grand Masters 2024 is currently being held at the Anna Centenary Library in Chennai, between November 5 to November 11th, 2024. This tournament is being live-streamed on Chess Base India's YouTube channel.