CHENNAI: Levon Aronian's win and Arjun Erigaisi's draw has opened a possibility of a tighter race in the Masters section of Chennai Grandmasters chess tournament.
The Armenian-turned-American defeated France's Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with white pieces in the fifth round of the tournament, a part of FIDE Circuit, at Anna Centenary Library on Saturday. With two more rounds to go in this eight-player seven-round closed event, top seed Arjun, 21, leads with four points and 42-year-old veteran Aronian is just half a point behind.
Top seed Raunak Sadhwani ended the winning streak of V Pranav in the Challenger section with a draw. But Pranav (4.5) is still a full point ahead of Leon Mendonca (3.5). Goa's Mendonca, playing with black pieces, drew with M Pranesh. In a game between only two women participants in the tournament, D Harika and R Vaishali agreed to split a point.
Aronian won in 44 moves of Nimzovich Attack in the Anti-Grunfeld opening where the opponent was on the verge of losing material. Aronian had two bishops vs bishop and knight in queen, rook and pawn endgame.
Playing with black pieces, Iran's Partham held his own against Arjun who is outplaying strong players at will these days. In a Queen's Gambit Declined game, a threefold repetition was reached in five pawns, rook and dark-squared bishop endgame after 44 moves. Once Arjun took care of the Black's advancing 'b' pawn, the parity was hardly in doubt.
