Chennai: India’s no.1 ranked chess player and world no.4 Arjun Erigaisi starts with a stunning victory against Vidit Gujrati in the opening round of the Chennai Grandmasters, held at the Anna Centenary Library in Chennai, on Tuesday.
In the Challengers event, GM Vaishali R of Chennai lost to Leon Mendonca in her first match of the tournament, while Harika Dronanvalli began with a defeat against 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 front 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 ratings points, Arjun is the firm favorite in the Chennai Grandmasters. Speaking about it, he said, “I do think I am one of the favorites, 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 and in what was the first match to be completed on the day.
French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave kicked things off with a win against Iranian GM Parham Maghsoodloo, and GM Aravindh Chithambaram and Amin Tabatabaei shared the spoils, with their match ending in a draw.
Over at the Challengers event, GM Pranav won his match against Harika Dronavalli and Abhimanyu Puranik too began with a win over Pranesh.
Raunak Sadhwani won his match against Murali Karthikeyan in what was the final Challenger match to conclude.
Round two will begin tomorrow at 3 PM, IST.