Chennai Grandmasters 2024: Arjun Erigaisi starts with a dramatic victory

Chennai: India's No.1 chess player and World No.4 Arjun Erigaisi started with a stunning victory against Vidit Gujrathi in the opening round of the Chennai Grandmasters, taking place at the Anna Centenary Library in Chennai, on Tuesday.

In the Challengers event, GM Vaishali R lost to Leon Mendonca in her first match of the tournament, while Harika Dronanvalli went down to GM Pranav.

The match between Arjun and Vidit, lasting for close to 4.5 hours, went down to the wire, and Arjun snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

Vidit, who was in a commanding position for the majority of the game, made a blunder with the King e5, and Arjun ascertained his victory with the King g6 move.

"I didn't see a win, I felt it would be a loss, but in the end it was almost a draw, and he blundered with King e5. I did not see the King g6 move earlier for me, but luckily I saw it there and I took my chance," Arjun said to the reporters after his win.

With over 2800 FIDE rating points, Arjun is the firm favourite in the Chennai Grandmasters. Arjun, however, does not see himself as a favourite. "I do think I am one of the favourites, but I don't want it to put pressure on me, and so I don't think about it a lot."

In other results, GM Levon Aronian and GM Alexey Sarana played out a draw.

French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave kicked things off with a win against Iranian GM Parham Maghsoodloo, while GM Aravindh Chithambaram and Amin Tabatabaei shared the spoils, with their match ending in a draw.

Over at the Challengers event, Abhimanyu Puranik too began with a win over Pranesh.

Raunak Sadhwani won his match against Murali Karthikeyan in the final Challenger match.

Round two will begin on November 6 (Wednesday) at 3 PM, IST.