Chennai Grandmasters 2024: Aravindh Chithambaram wins the Masters title

GM Aravindh Chithambaram has clinched the Chennai Grand Masters 2024 title after a 2-0 win in a tiebreaker against GM Levon Aronian of the USA in Chennai, on Monday.

After the round-robin cycle, Chithambaram was tied for the top position alongside the American and the top-seeded Indian Arjun Erigaisi with 4.5/7 points.

And this resulted in an unprecedented 3-way tiebreaker playoff for the championship.

Aravind received a bye in the playoff because of his better criteria constraint on tiebreakers whereas Aronian and Erigaisi played each other for a spot in the final.

In an intense playoff match, the American edged out the India in Armageddon as they tied their playoff match 1.5-1.5.

With this, Erigaisi, the favorite, had to settle for the third position.

In the final round, Aronian played out a quickfire draw with Amin Tabatabaei of Iran to confirm at least a top-three finish for himself whereas Erigaisi drew his game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France after a long tussle.

The tournament went into the three-way tiebreak when Aravindh, high on confidence after beating Erigaisi in the previous round, secured his second consecutive win after taking down Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran.

V Pranav clinches the Challengers title

Meanwhile, India's V Pranav clinched the Challengers title in a straight-on title clash with Leon Luke Mendonca, who incidentally, needed a win to secure the title.

The game ended in a draw and Pranav took home the title with a score of 5.5/7.

With this result, Pranav will now get a promotion for the next year's masters tournament of Chennai Grandmasters.

Mendonca (5/7) and Raunak Sadhwani (4/7) finished second and third respectively.