Arjun Erigaisi wins Indian Qualifier to the Champions Chess Tour

by Shahid Ahmed
5/11/2021 – Arjun Erigaisi pulled a massive upset in the finals of the Indian Qualifier to the Champions Chess Tour by handing Adhiban his first defeat of the event. Nonetheless, by reaching the finals, Adhiban had already qualified to the elite online tour. Aravindh beat Gukesh in the match for third place. Gukesh should be happy with his performance, as he was the only player to beat eventual champion Arjun Erigaisi in the very first game of the semifinals.
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Adhiban also qualifies

Adhiban did not lose a single game in the Indian Qualifier until the fifth encounter of the finals against Arjun Erigaisi. The sole loss turned out to be decisive as Arjun drew the sixth game comfortably to win the tournament. Despite losing in the finals, Adhiban also got a spot at the June event of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, as the qualifier granted two tickets to the online tournament.

After making four draws in the rapid games, Arjun won the first blitz tiebreaker and took the lead in the finals.

 
Adhiban vs. Arjun Erigaisi - Game #5

White has got a desired position out of the opening, and he just needs to capitalize on it. Black seems to be getting into quite an uncomfortable position after 10.f5 or 10.h5. The game continued with 10.h5 Bh7 11.g5 hxg5 12.fxg5 Nfd7 13.g6 Bg8 14.exd5 exd5, and we get the following position:

 

This looks like a position which White should win. Find out the correct plan for White to continue here. The game went on with 15.Qe2+ Qe7 16.Qxe7 Kxe7 17.Nh3 Rxh5 and White’s advantage evaporated as Black managed to equalize.

 

White blundered in the endgame with 32.Nh4. Find out why it is a mistake and what White should have played instead.

 
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1.b3 604 d5 604 2.Bb2 9 Bf5 8 3.d3 7 c5 10 4.Nd2 8 Nf6 8 5.e4 22 Bg4 44 6.f3 21 Bh5 18 6...Bc8 7.g4 11 Bg6 9 8.h4 13 8.f4 8...h6 18 9.f4 19 e6 66 10.h5 20 10.f5 10...Bh7 9 11.g5 8 hxg5 21 12.fxg5 7 Nfd7 12 13.g6 12 Bg8 12 14.exd5 8 exd5 34 15.Qe2+ 9 15.Qf3 Qe7+ 16.Kf2 15...Qe7 13 16.Qxe7+ 9 Kxe7 9 17.Nh3 49 Rxh5 38 18.gxf7 10 Bxf7 7 19.0-0-0 9 Nc6 14 20.Bg2 9 Re8 24 21.Rdf1 46 Nf6 18 22.Rf2 31 Kd8 25 23.Bxf6+ 12 gxf6 7 24.Rxf6 7 Bg8 12 25.Nf3 28 Bg7 18 26.Rd6+ 21 Kc7 11 27.Rg6 8 Bc3 18 28.Nf4 9 Rf5 9 29.Rg4 24 Ne5 17 30.Rxg8 37 Rxg8 28 31.Nxd5+ 7 Kb8 18 32.Nh4?? 51 32.Nxe5 Rxe5 32...Bxe5 33.Ne7 33.Nxc3 Rxg2 32...Rh5 21 33.Nf6 8 Nxd3+ 9 34.cxd3 10 Bxf6 6 35.Nf3 76 Rf5 11 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Adhiban,B2660Erigaisi Arjun25670–12021A01CCT Indian Qualifier4.5

Arjun made a comfortable draw in the sixth game and won the finals 3½-2½.

Adhiban Baskaran

Aravindh beats Gukesh to grab third place

Gukesh escaped from the jaws of defeat in the first game after he blundered in the endgame under time pressure.

 
Aravindh vs. Gukesh - Game #1

35...Kc6 is a blunder as White can now win in all plausible variations. Find out how and also what Black should have played instead.

 
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1.g3 0 d5 0 2.Nf3 0 g6 20 3.Bg2 1 Bg7 2 4.d4 1 Nf6 6 5.0-0 1 0-0 3 6.c4 2 c6 2 7.b3 5 a5 50 8.Nc3 7 Ne4 18 9.Bb2 4 Nxc3 12 10.Bxc3 0 Bf5 9 11.Ne5 96 Nd7 205 12.cxd5 159 cxd5 20 13.Nd3 6 Be4 72 14.f3 55 Bxd3 46 15.Qxd3 5 Qb6 30 16.e3 97 Rfc8 16 17.Rfd1 283 Rc7 103 18.Rac1 50 Rac8 135 19.Bd2 6 Nb8 201 20.Bf1 42 Rxc1 29 21.Rxc1 8 Rxc1 2 22.Bxc1 0 Nc6 17 23.Qb5 60 Qc7 12 24.Ba3 109 e6 54 25.Qc5 15 Qd8 19 26.Bb5 57 Bf8 58 27.Qxf8+ 27 Qxf8 2 28.Bxf8 0 Kxf8 0 29.Bxc6 13 bxc6 0 30.Kf2 3 Ke7 23 31.Ke2 36 Kd6 8 32.Kd3 1 c5 28 33.f4 24 f6 6 34.g4 46 g5 14 35.a3 17 Kc6?? 11 35...h6 36.dxc5 10 Kxc5 2 36...gxf4 37.exf4 Kxc5 38.g5 fxg5 39.fxg5+- 36...e5 37.fxe5 fxe5 38.b4 37.b4+ 4 37.fxg5 fxg5 38.e4 37...axb4 5 38.axb4+ 0 Kxb4 1 39.Kd4 2 gxf4 34 39...h6 40.f5 exf5 41.gxf5 h5 42.Kxd5 h4 43.e4 g4 44.e5 g3 45.hxg3 h3= 46.e6 46.exf6?? h2-+ 46...h2 47.e7 h1Q+ 48.Ke6 Qh5 49.Kd7 49.g4 Qe8-+ 49...Qxf5+ 50.Ke8 Kc5 51.Kf7= 40.exf4 2 Kb5 1 41.g5 38 fxg5 4 42.fxg5 0 Kc6 4 43.Ke5 0 Kd7 7 44.h4 2 Ke7 4 45.h5 4 Kf7 3 46.Kd4 3 Kf8 16 47.Ke5 2 Ke7 15 48.Kd4 3 Kf7 32 49.Ke5 2 Ke7 5 50.Kd4 2 Kf8 2 51.Ke5 2 Kf7 2 52.Kd4 1 Kg7 6 53.Ke5 2 Kf7 14 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Aravindh,C2641Gukesh D2578½–½2021D78CCT Indian Qualifier4.1

In the second game, Aravindh launched a heavy attack on the kingside against which Gukesh did not have any defence.

 
Gukesh vs. Aravindh - Game #2

Things have gone completely wrong for White as Black is ready to outplay him. The game went on with 22.Nb3 and after 22...Nf5 things went out of hand for White very soon. Aravindh won the game in another eleven moves and took a 1½-½ lead.

 
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1.d4 0 Nf6 0 2.c4 0 e6 0 3.Nf3 2 b6 4 4.a3 64 Ba6 16 5.Qc2 27 Bb7 3 6.Nc3 10 c5 3 7.d5 140 exd5 259 8.cxd5 4 Nxd5 17 9.Nxd5 202 Bxd5 2 10.e4 4 Be6 63 11.Bc4 63 Nc6 87 12.0-0 30 Be7 18 13.Bf4 91 g5 37 14.Be3 102 g4 6 15.Nd2 6 Bg5 24 16.Rfe1 60 Bxe3 135 17.Rxe3 3 Qg5 1 18.e5 161 Nd4 3 19.Qd3 51 0-0 55 20.Rf1 30 Kh8 133 21.Kh1 19 Rg8 42 22.Nb3?! 17 22.b4 22...Nf5 43 23.Re4 13 Rg6 8 24.Bxe6 19 dxe6 6 25.h3 16 Rd8 54 26.Qc3 4 gxh3 49 27.g4 2 Nh6 46 28.f3 17 Nf5 15 29.Kh2 8 c4 12 29...h5 30.Nc1 21 Rd2+ 16 31.Ne2 2 b5 35 32.Rf2 13 Qh4 9 33.Kg1 23 Rd1+ 7 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Gukesh D2578Aravindh,C26410–12021E12CCT Indian Qualifier4.2

In the third game, Gukesh lost a pawn early in the opening and could not recover for the rest of the game.

 
Aravindh vs. Gukesh - Game #3

While 10...e5 is a thematic break in the Dutch, in this particular case it costs Black a pawn. Instead, 10...a5 or 10...Na6 would have been fine for Black. With this win, Aravindh won the match by 2½-½ and secured third place.

 
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1.g3 0 g6 0 2.Bg2 0 Bg7 0 3.Nf3 0 f5 13 4.d4 4 Nf6 2 5.0-0 4 0-0 1 6.c4 4 d6 6 7.Nc3 16 c6 37 8.b3 12 Qc7 81 9.Ba3 226 Rd8 60 10.Qc2 16 e5? 197 10...a5 10...Na6 11.Bxd6 183 Qxd6 4 12.dxe5 1 Qe7 2 13.exf6 1 Qxf6 1 14.Rad1 4 Re8 57 15.Nd4 14 Nd7 6 16.e3 34 Ne5 3 17.c5 31 Bd7 208 18.b4 45 Qe7 139 19.h3 193 Rf8 128 20.Rfe1 102 a5 41 21.a3 33 axb4 1 22.axb4 0 Qf7 33 23.b5 56 Qc4 11 24.f4 73 Nf7 34 25.Nce2 11 Qxc2 27 26.Nxc2 0 Be6 32 27.Ned4 2 Bc4 9 28.bxc6 1 bxc6 1 29.Nxc6 0 Ra2 13 30.N2b4 40 Ra3 1 31.Bd5 13 Bb5 17 32.Nd4 30 Ba4 3 33.Rd3 27 Rxd3 4 34.Nxd3 0 Rd8 0 35.Nb4 27 Bf8 19 36.Ne6 19 Rc8 21 37.Rc1 20 Be7 8 38.Nd3 11 Kh8 16 39.c6 13 Bb5 18 40.Ne5 9 Nxe5 18 41.fxe5 0 Ba3 6 42.Rb1 24 Ba4 16 43.c7 6 Bd7 6 44.Rb8 2 Bc1 29 45.Kf2 2 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Aravindh,C2641Gukesh D25781–02021A88CCT Indian Qualifier4.3

Aravindh

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Shahid Ahmed is the senior coordinator and editor of ChessBase India. He enjoys covering chess tournaments and also likes to play in chess events from time to time.

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