Magazine : 
Arjun Erigaisi Triumphs in Five-Hour Thriller at Chennai Chess GM
World No.4 Arjun Erigaisi defeated compatriot Vidit Gujrathi after five hours of end-to-end action in the opening round of the Chennai Chess Grand Masters 2024 in Chennai to mark a good start. Other Indians on the board had a sedate day as Aravindh Chithambaram managed a draw while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France beat Iran's Parham Maghsoodloo to make it a perfect start as well.
Erigaisi is to participate in his first home tournament since reaching the historic 2800 ELO Rating. He will strive to equal the feats of last year's winner. Gukesh, who used the victory in this event to catapult himself into the Candidates, winning the right to contest Ding Liren of China in the World Chess Championship Final Match.
The Chennai Chess Grand Masters 2024, comes in two categories – Masters and Challengers. This time, the Masters has an average rating of 2729, making it more competitive than before. Meanwhile, the debuting Challengers is designed to give emerging Indian talent a chance to compete in a top-class tournament.
Gujrathi, on the white side, was out with the King's Pawn Opening, which Erigaisi answered with the French Variation of the Sicilian Defense. The game between the two Grandmasters saw them trading punches at fairly regular intervals and then grinding their way to a tough finish, where Erigaisi emerged victorious, almost five hours into play.
Former national champion Aravindh Chithambaram, ranked 29th in the world, faced Amin Tabatabaei on board 1. He made a gritty draw against Iranian GM Tabatabaei.
On board 4, the USA's Levon Aronian, the second-highest ranked in the tournament, also sought a draw in the match against Serbia's Alexey Sarana. Master Maxime Vachier-Lagrave began his championship campaign with the black pieces and whitewashed Parham Maghsoodloo to top the Masters leaderboard.
The Challenger segment of the Chennai Grand Masters 2024 promised some thriller matches and incredible performances.
Top seed in this debut event, Raunak Sadhwani, did prove his worth by winning convincingly against Karthikeyan Murali. He set a very high standard. Leon Mendonca showed strategic acumen in his game against Vaishali R and won the match. V Pranav won against Harika Dronavalli and Abhimanyu Puranik won against M Pranesh in another closely contested match.
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