Arjun Becomes 2nd In World In Live Ratings After Chaotic Win
The third-round encounter between GMs Arjun Erigaisi and GM Alexey Sarana at the Chennai Grand Masters 2024 had two distinct phases: the first 23 moves, flawlessly played by both sides, and the rest marred by tactical errors. But what mattered was Arjun's resourcefulness which finally enabled him to win the game and reach the second position in live world ratings, overtaking GM Fabiano Caruana.
GM Amin Tabatabaei defeated heavyweight GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with Black in a surprisingly one-sided game and joined Arjun in the lead at 2.5 points in the Masters section. GM Levon Aronian scored his first win of the tournament, against GM Parham Maghsoodloo, to reach 2 points and the sole third place.
GM Pranav Venkatesh ground down GM Murali Karthikeyan in a long endgame to score his third straight win and jump into the sole lead in the Challengers. He is followed by GM Leon Mendonca on 2.5 points and GM Raunak Sadhwani on 2 points.
Round four will be on November 08 at 4.30 a.m. ET/11.30 a.m. CEST/3 p.m. IST.
Round 3 Standings: Challengers
Masters
Arjun's game against Sarana seemed to be an excellent fight especially when the latter had sacrificed a pawn in the opening phase itself. Only when the complications started did the game become error-prone and hence exciting.
That's our Game Of The Day, annotated by GM Rafael Leitao.
Thus he overtook Caruana to jump into the second spot in live chess ratings.
Soon enough, compliments started pouring in.
Arjun plays a unique brand of chess which people following with modern engines can't understand.
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) November 7, 2024
Tabatabaei's win with Black against Vachier-Lagrave did not show any such dramatic moments, though the Frenchman seemed to miss such moments when he could have fought back on the board by creating chaos.
Aronian's win over GM Parham Magsoodhloo was on the chaotic side, where both sides seemed to be maneuvering for a long time. It was Maghsoodloo who self-destructed under the pressure of the clock.
Challengers
"Buddy" Pranav is a typical high-energy teenager, as you realize when you watch the initial half of a post-game video, produced by ChessBase India. This is from the players' room immediately after the game when some of them are seen discussing their games with the typical zest of energy.
Pranav has a balanced style of play, able to handle both tactical positions and those when he needs to probe the opponent in a long game. It was such a latter nature of a game in the third round when his opponent Karthikeyan cracked in a long endgame with under a minute on his clock.
GM Pranesh Munerathnam is the next big talent to come out of the stable of GM R.B.Ramesh. One of Pranesh's biggest assets is his boldness, and he exhibited it in a crucial moment of the game to unleash 23.g4! to outwit another of Ramesh's students, GM Vaishali Rameshbabu.
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.
