Aravindh stuns Aronian to claim top prize

Aravindh Chithambaram won the Masters title in the Chennai Grand Masters Chess Tournament while V. Pranav topped the Challengers section.
| Photo Credit: B. JOTHI RAMALINGAM

S. Prasanna Venkatesan

CHENNAI: For someone whose aim entering the tournament was not to finish last, Aravindh Chithambaram not only surprised everyone, but also himself, when he went on to clinch an incredible title win by defeating Levon Aronian (US) 2-0 in a blitz tie-break in the second edition of the Chennai Grandmasters classical chess tournament at the Anna Centenary Library auditorium here on Monday.

What makes his title win incredible is that it was his first classical super tournament. He began the tournament with a struggle, when he was on the backfoot and had to defend almost throughout to manage a draw with Iranian Amin Tabatabaei in the first round. He was an unlikely winner until the end of the fifth round, when he’d drawn all his games. He had noted that he’d got no chance to win in any of his games.

Possibly boosted by his win against top seed Arjun Erigaisi in the sixth round, he won with black pieces versus Iranian Parham Maghsoodloo in the last round.

As Arjun and Aronian drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) and Tabatabaei respectively, it was a three-way tie between Arjun (4.5), Aravindh (4.5), and Aronian (4.5) for the championship.

Since Aravindh had the best tie-break in terms of direct encounters, he was given a bye to face the winner of the Arjun-Aronian blitz tie-break (two games).

But as that tie-break once again ended in a tie (1-1), Arjun and Aronian played an armageddon decider. Aronian won by virtue of holding Arjun to a draw with black pieces.

V. Pranav drew with Leon Luke Mendonca in the final round to secure the Challengers title.

The results (seventh round, Indians unless mentioned): Masters: Levon Aronian (US, 4.5) drew with Amin Tabatabaei (Irn, 4); Alexey Sarana (Ser, 2.5) drew with Vidit Gujrathi (2.5); Arjun Erigaisi (4.5) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 3); Parham Maghsoodloo (Irn, 2.5) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (4.5).

Challengers: V. Pranav (5.5) drew with Leon Luke Mendonca (5); D. Harika (2) drew with M. Pranesh (3.5); Abhimanyu Puranik (3.5) drew with Raunak Sadhwani (4); Karthikeyan Murali (3.5) bt R. Vaishali (1).