Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi wins Delhi International Open Chess tournament

Arjun Erigaisi came up with another inspired effort to annex the 19th Delhi International Open Chess tournament that concluded at the Tivoli Gardens in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Grandmaster and national champion Erigaisi lived up to the expectations and crashed through the defenses of Karthik Venkataraman to emerge as the champion.

Starting the day with a five-way lead and having the best tie-break, Erigaisi left nothing to chance as he went for an offensive right from the word go. He adopted the Sicilian Najdorf game as white and even though Karthik posed some challenges in the middle of the game, the youngster romped home easily.

Arjun Erigaisi pockets Rs. 4 lakh in prize money

Arjun Erigaisi won Rs. 4 lakh as the winner plus a glittering trophy and looks certain to make the main team at the forthcoming Chess Olympiad in Chennai. With the win, Erigaisi also scaled past 2675 in the live Elo ratings.

Earlier this month, the young man had won the National Championship at Kanpur quite easily.

D. Gukesh, who had also fought tooth and nail with Arjun in the National Championship, defeated last event’s winner Abhijeet Gupta from a level endgame to finish second.

The Nimzo Indian by Gukesh as black led to a level endgame but Abhijeet took unwarranted risks leading to his downfall. It was almost a repeat of the last round of the National Championship when Abhijeet had a similar fate out of the same opener against Gukesh.

Harsha Bharthakoti finished third in the tie-break, defeating Sethuraman, who played black. For the record, Arjun, Gukesh and Harsha all ended up on 8.5 points out of a possible 10.

The caravan now moves to Ahmedabad for the final installment of the three international events planned in India after a two-year gap.

Delhi Open Chess set to be bigger next year: AICF secretary

The Delhi Open will be a much bigger event next year with Rs. 1.25 crore as prize money. It was announced by All India Chess Federation Secretary and Delhi Association President Bharat Singh Chauhan on the opening day of this gala meet.

The top three finishers with the AICF officials and guests. (Pic credit: AICF)

Important Results (final round)

Abhijeet Gupta (7.5) lost to D Gukesh (8.5)

SP Sethuraman (7.5) lost to Harsha Bharathakoti (8.5)

Erigaisi Arjun (8.5) beat Karthik Venkataraman (7)

Gusain Himal (7.5) drew with MR Lalith Babu (7.5)

Tahbaz Arash (7) lost to Nigmatov Ortik (8)

P Iniyan (7) drew with Neelash Saha (7.5)

Shahil Dey (6.5) lost to Delgado Ramirez Neuris (7.5)

Divya Deshmukh (6.5) lost to RR Laxman (7.5)

S Nitin (6.5) lost to Rohith Krishna (7.5)

Aradhya Garg (6.5) lost to Gholami Orimi Mahdi (7.5).

Arjun Erigaisi receiving the cheque of Rs 4 lakh from the chief guests on Tuesday. (Pic credit: AICF)

The top 10

1-3: Arjun Erigaisi, D Gukesh, Harsha Bharathakoti (8.5 each)

4. Nigmatov Ortik (8)

5-10: SP Sethuraman, Delgado Ramirez Neuris, MR Lalith Babu, Abhijeet Gupta, Neelash Saha, Gholami Orimi Mahdi (7.5 each).