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On Friday, November 8, Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi extended his lead at the top of the standings after defeating GM Amin Tabatabaei of Iran in the fourth round of the Chennai Grand Masters 2024 with 3.5 points to his name. Arjun Erigaisi has a comfortable one-point lead over Amin Tabatabaei and Armenian-American GM Levon Aronian, but still, he has some work to do, to clinch the tournament victory.
In a full-fledged battle on the chess board, Arjun Erigaisi took the attack to Amin Tabatabaei with the black pieces, advancing his pawns on the kingside with his king positioned in the centre. After sacrificing a piece on the 23rd move, Erigaisi managed to simplify the position with two rooks and two pawns against two minor pieces of Tabatabaei before he converted it into a win.
Following the successful game, Arjun Erigaisi, who became the world No. 2 player on live classical chess ratings, was quite pleased with his high risk tactic paying off. He was quoted as saying, as per Chess.com, “"I obviously knew it was very risky. There was a fair chance I might get worse, and end up in a difficult situation, but I believed in my skill, and thought I would take the risk. There was a fair chance I might get worse, and end up in a difficult situation, but I believed in my skill, and thought I would take the risk.”
Meanwhile, in the challengers series of the Chess Grand Masters 2024 tournament, GM Pranav Venkatesh got the better of fellow Indian GM Vaishali Rameshbabu in a long endgame, to take the sole lead with four points after four rounds. He is one-point ahead of fellow countryman GM Leon Mendonca, who is also half a point ahead of another Indian GM Raunak Sadhwani in the challengers series.
