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The 5th edition of the Shenzhen Masters, held in the Longgang district, featured a first-class field with four local GMs and four international GMs. Five of the eight participants have a 2700+ Elo rating.
After seven rounds, Chinese players Bu Xianghi and Yu Yangyi and Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi finished the tournament in a tie for first place with 4½ points each. The tournament victory went to Bu Xiangzhi thanks to his better score according to the first tiebreak criterion. The decisive factor was the direct results between the three co-leaders. Bu was ahead thanks to his win over Arjun. Yu had drawn both games, and Arjun had only scored ½ point against Yu
In the final round on Thursday, the players did not take a safety-first approach, but three of the four games ended drawn nonetheless. The only decisive game was seen in the Chinese duel between Ma Qun and Xu Xiangyu.
In a game that opened with the Najdorf Variation, the chances were equal for a long time. In the endgame with knight and bishop against two knights, Xu managed to make the most of his passer on the h-file following inaccurate play by his opponent.
Anish Giri had a rather disappointing result. The Dutchman started with a win, but then suffered three defeats in a row before stabilising again. His 2½ points facing an average rating of 2587 meant a loss of 17 rating points and ten places in the live rating list — he dropped from 5th to 15th place.
Arjun Erigaisi, meanwhile, collected three wins in the first four rounds, albeit including a defeat against Bu Xiangzhi, which was decisive for the tournament victory at the end. In the second half of the tournament, Arjun was unable to score more than half a point in any of his games, against Yu Yangyi, Vladislav Artemiev and Daniil Dubov.
Arjun still won 5.5 rating points and moved up to tenth place in the live ratings list. A recurring theme in the Indian chess scene is whether the best Indian player since the invention of chess, Vishy Anand, will ever be surpassed in the Indian ranking. Arjun did just that with his result in Shenzhen, making him India’s number one for the time being.
