GM Arjun Erigaisi in action in the 3rd round of the Chennai Grand Masters tournament at the Anna Centenary Library in Chennai. (PHOTO: Chennai Grand Masters)
Arjun Erigaisi rose to the world no 2 spot in the live ratings (which are updated in real time) on Thursday after beating Alexey Sarana in Round 3 at the Chennai Grand Masters tournament in Tamil Nadu’s capital.
In the live ratings, Arjun Erigaisi now has 2805.8 rating points, which saw him nudge ahead of USA’s Fabiano Caruana (who has 2805.0) and American GM Hikaru Nakamura (2802.0). India’s Gukesh, who will compete against Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship later this month, is fifth in the live rankings with 2783.0 points.
Only Magnus Carlsen is ahead of Arjun at the moment with 2831.0 points in the ratings.
Just last month, Arjun Erigaisi had become the 16th player to ever touch 2800 rating points. He could not officially join the 2800 club that has 14 members as he had dropped below 2800 by the time the monthly rating list was published by FIDE.
previously, he had also become the World no 3. But talking to The Indian Express, Arjun had spoken about his feelings about milestones like World no 3 and 2800 rating points.
“They do feel good. But they don’t matter that much. Last year, if it happened, I would be very happy. And if I fell behind, for example, I would be very sad. There would be a clear change of emotions. That’s no longer the case. It feels good if it happens. But even if it doesn’t happen, I’m still happy,” Arjun Erigaisi had told The Indian Express.
INTERACTIVE: How Arjun Erigaisi beat Alexey Sarana
On Thursday against Sarana, Arjun opted for a St Petersburg Variation in the Nimzo-Indian Defense, Arjun Erigaisi took down Sarana with black pieces in 37 moves. Sarana had managed to erode the defensive line of pawns in front of Arjun’s king while keeping his own king ensconced behind three pawns. But on the 26th move, the Serbian erred by pushing his pawn to h4, which caused his advantage on the eval bar to collapse.
Eventually Sarana crumpled when Arjun’s pawn on the d file started to reach the endzone to earn a promotion.
For Arjun Erigaisi, this is his second win in the tournament after three rounds. Arjun had also brought down compatriot and Chess Olympiad teammate Vidit Gujrathi in the first round after a marathon struggle.
The 21-year-old Arjun thus reinforced his lead at the top of the Masters category, which he jointly leads the field which has a rating average of 2729 along with Amin Tabatabaei after three rounds.
Vidit, meanwhile, earned his first points thanks to a draw against Indian GM Aravindh Chithambaram. In other matches, Amin Tabatabaei stunned Maxime Vachier-Lagrave while Levon Aronian claimed a strong victory over Parham Maghsoodloo.
