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About three weeks after winning the Menorca Open, where he climbed to world number 7 in the live ratings list, Arjun Erigaisi has now scored 2 wins and 1 draw in Malmö to continue his remarkable ascent. Arjun currently stands in fifth place, a few Elo points ahead of Gukesh, who recently qualified to play in the upcoming World Championship match.
In Monday’s third round at the TePe Sigeman & Co. Tournament, Arjun defeated Marc’Andria Maurizzi to join Anton Korobov and Vincent Keymer in the lead. This was Maurizzi’s third loss in as many games — playing black, the current junior world champion did not play it safe against an aggressive Arjun (see analysis of the game below).
Given the fact that three Indian players participated in the recent Candidates Tournament — not including Arjun — Anish Giri took this chance to share one of his well-known quips on X:
My prediction is that Arjun is going to qualify to the next Candidates through ALL of the available qualification routes.
Arjun Erigaisi | Photo: Mikael Svensson, tepesigemanchess.com
The three remaining games ended drawn, with Nils Grandelius getting an edge in an endgame while playing white against Ju Wenjun. The decisive mistake came on move 60, when Gradelius had less than 1 minute on his clock:
The Swedish GM went for simplifications with 60.Nxb7+ Rxb7 61.Rxg6, when Black can keep the balance in the pawn-down rook endgame.
Instead, 60.b4 would have allowed White to make progress while his opponent is all but completely paralysed — e.g. 60...Kc6 61.a4 Kd6 62.Ke3 (diagram).
White can patiently infiltrate Black’s position from this strategically winning setup.
In the game, on the other hand, Ju managed to save a draw and thus score her first half point of the event.
Women’s world champion Ju Wenjun | Photo: Mikael Svensson, tepesigemanchess.com
Marc’Andria Maurizzi | Photo: Mikael Svensson, tepesigemanchess.com
Results - Round 3
