Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaise secured the WR Chess masters title after defeating France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the Armageddon game following two draws in Classical chess during the final in London.
Arjun displayed great form and precision throughout the event to bag the winner’s prize of 20,000 Euros. He defeated his friend R Praggnanandhaa in the semifinals of the knockout event before eventually getting past Vachier-Lagrave.
The 16-player tournament saw Arjun scoring a 2-0 victory over Sivananda Bodhana of England who is known to be the youngest ever to play in the Chess Olympiad for her country.
Fellow Indian Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi also fell to Arjun, who won the second game in the two-games mini-match by 1.5-0.5 margin.
Against Praggnanandhaa in the semis, Arjun took an early lead by winning the first game as white and did well to draw the second game to win the match 1.5-0.5.
In the final, Vachier-Lagrave put up stiff resistance against the World number four Indian but eventually crumbled in the Armageddon game.
The first game ended in an easy draw for Arjun as black, while the second game featured wild complex play out of a Sicilian Najdorf opening where the Indian played white.
The dust subsided on the 21st move leading to a tricky endgame post the queen trade and the game was drawn.
Vachier-Lagrave had 10 minutes on his clock with white pieces in the finale against Arjun’s 6 minutes and 58 seconds. However, as is the law, the Frenchman needed a win.
Arjun navigated the opening well despite less time out of Petrov's defense and reached a balanced position.
Vachier-Lagrave sacrificed two minor pieces for a rook to make some threats around Arjun’s King but the Indian remained on guard.
The game could have been a draw through repetition but that would have won the match for Arjun anyway.
The Queens were traded but Arjun was never in trouble as Vachier-Lagrave fought in vain for 69 moves before calling it a day.
With this victory, Arjun moved closer to the coveted 2800 ELO rating mark, though he will need to wait for his next event to achieve it.
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