Aravindh Beats Arjun, Tense Last Round Beckons
GM Aravindh Chithambaram's first win of the tournament in the sixth and penultimate round handed GM Arjun Erigaisi his first loss of the tournament, thus enabling GM Levon Aronian to join Arjun in the lead with four points in the Masters section of the Chennai Grand Masters 2024. Aronian drew with GM Vidit Gujrathi, surviving anxious moments throughout the game.
Aravindh and GM Amin Tabatabaei are immediately behind the leaders with 3.5 points each, thus setting up a tense final round tomorrow with many possible outcomes.
In the Challengers section, GM Pranav Venkatesh's lead was cut to half a point, as he had a draw with GM Pranesh Munerathnam to reach five points. GM Leon Mendonca had an attractive sacrificial attacking win against GM Murali Karthikeyan to reach 4.5 points. In another tense final round tomorrow, these two leaders play each other, with Pranav having the white pieces.
The seventh and final round will start on Monday, November 11, four hours earlier at 00:30 a.m. ET/6:30 CET/11 a.m. IST.
Round 6 Standings: Challengers
Masters
Graphic by Chennai Grand Masters.
The Sunday crowd that thronged the venue at Chennai was treated to a dramatic penultimate round. Local player Aravindh gave Arjun his first loss of the tournament, and Aronian survived anxious moments against Vidit.
Aravindh had drawn all his games in the event before this round, and his approach in every game seemed to be to invite his opponents to create an imbalance rather than do so himself.
A few days ago, Arjun had talked about this concept in chess—when a player with white pieces decides to take it safe and "kill the game"—rather than enter a full-fledged fight, thus allowing the player with black pieces to create chances for himself. Also, as Aravindh was breathing down Arjun's neck, it was quite curious what Arjun would do against the solid Aravindh.
Not surprisingly, Aravindh played the safe Torre Attack steering the game into quiet waters. Most importantly, he kept his position devoid of structural weaknesses in the middlegame.
Irrespective of the tournament situation, Arjun continued to play dynamically, seemingly even at the cost of ignoring the strategic basics of the position.
White is already slightly better, but Arjun's 23...e5? seems to ignore the resultant weaknesses in the pawn structure, all for the sake of activity. This tense game is our Game Of The Day annotated by GM Rafael Leitao.
Appearing later on the live commentary, Aravindh honestly admitted his tension while converting an advantageous position.
Aravindh: "In the time pressure I was really nervous—the position was still complicated and I thought I would blunder something!" https://t.co/dWIOvCHlHM pic.twitter.com/2Ir3ThnUvW
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 10, 2024
Vidit almost came close to scoring his first win of the tournament as he enjoyed an overwhelming position on many occasions. But less time on the clock proved to be the decisive factor, allowing Aronian to escape with a draw to become the joint leader of the tournament.
Challengers
Graphic by Chennai Grand Masters.
Mendonca's game against Karthikeyan was proceeding without incident when suddenly the latter decided to be ambitious and came under a sacrificial attack.
The Chennai Grand Masters 2024, taking place in Chennai, is India's strongest classical super-tournament of the year. It is an eight-player round-robin that takes place from November 5 to 11 with a time control of 90+30. The prize fund is 50 lakhs, which is approximately $60,000.
Previous Coverage
- Round 1: Arjun, Vachier-Lagrave Start With Contrasting Wins
- Round 2: Mendonca, Pranav Lead Challengers With 2nd Straight Wins
- Round 3: Arjun Becomes 2nd In The World In Live Ratings After Chaotic Win
- Round 4: Arjun Wins Again To Reach 2809.3; Pranav Makes It 4/4
- Round 5: Aronian Defeats Vachier-Lagrave, Trails Arjun By Half-Point
