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Round 1 of the Chennai Grand Masters Chess Tournament's Masters section saw two of the four games ending decisively, with both top seed Arjun Erigaisi and French Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave scoring victories. Arjun defeated fellow Indian Vidit Gujrathi in a highly tactical contest, while Vachier-Lagrave outplayed Iranian grandmaster Parham Maghsoodloo. These early wins have propelled Arjun and MVL to the top of the leaderboard.
Arjun's win also marked an impressive milestone, as his live rating now surpassed the 2800 mark, a prestigious achievement in professional chess. He first crossed this threshold a few weeks ago at the European Club Cup. Although the official FIDE rankings released on 1 November show him with a 2799 rating, this latest victory further solidifies his standing. The Indian star has now climbed to third in the live rankings, overtaking Hikaru Nakamura.
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Vachier-Lagrave, meanwhile, gained a valuable 4.7 rating points with his victory over Maghsoodloo, moving him up seven spots in the live ratings. This climb underscores the tight competition around the 2750 rating mark, with many players jostling for position.
The remaining two games of the round ended in draws, though they offered contrasting narratives. Levon Aronian's game against Alexey Sarana concluded relatively quickly, while in contrast, Aravindh Chithambaram's game with Amin Tabatabaei played out more intensely. Tabatabaei pushed for an edge in the endgame with a queen and rook against his rival's queen, bishop and pawn, ultimately settling for a draw after a prolonged struggle.
The tournament's second round is set to deliver more excitement, with Arjun scheduled to play White against Aronian in a highly anticipated matchup. Meanwhile, Vachier-Lagrave will face Aravindh Chithambaram with the black pieces, as both co-leaders aim to maintain their early momentum.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
Analysis by Shahid Ahmed
Arjun won the last classical game against Vidit at the WR Masters Cup last month. This time, the majority of the game was a rook and bishop v. rook and knight endgame. Vidit even got a decisive advantage at one point.
White's rook and bishop are already placed better. What he needed to do was to bring the king in action with 53.Kc4. It was not easy to figure that out in time trouble, especially when it is not the obvious plan.
53.Rc7 Ke8 54.Rc8+ Kf7 55.Rd8 Nb6 56.Rf8+ Kg7 57.Rf6 and White got only a few more small chances.
After battling for more than four hours, Vidit blundered when he took the poisoned pawn at e5 on move 87, as 87.Ke6 would have kept the game going.
87.Kxe5?? ended things in a hurry. Black does not need to rush playing Re4+ as 88.Kf6 saves the day.
Instead, 87...Kg6! ends the game: 88.Ke6 Re4+ 89.Kd7 Nf5 forcing the rook exchange.
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Black ran the h-pawn down the board and won the game.
The opening round of the Challengers saw a clean sweep of decisive results, as all four games ended with wins for the rating favourites. Held at the Anna Centenary Library in Chennai, the first day's play demonstrated the strength of the higher-rated players. Five participants in the Challengers section boast ratings above 2600, and four of them - Raunak Sadhwani (2677), Abhimanyu Puranik (2652), Leon Luke Mendonca (2631) and Pranav Venkatesh (2602) - secured victories to take an early lead in the standings.
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The day's longest game was also the only match-up between two 2600+ rated players, as Raunak faced Karthikeyan Murali. Their battle stretched to 69 moves, with Raunak ultimately claiming victory. This win against a strong opponent may prove pivotal in the final standings, as Raunak aims to establish himself among the frontrunners in this competitive field.
Round 2 is set to bring further excitement, as two of the co-leaders, Abhimanyu Puranik and Pranav Venkatesh, will face each other with Abhimanyu playing white. Meanwhile, the section's two female competitors, Harika Dronavalli and Vaishali Rameshbabu, will be looking to make their mark on Wednesday as they seek to get on the scoreboard.
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