Chennai Grand Masters 2024: Aravindh clinches Masters title, Pranav becomes Challengers champion

A late surge by GM Aravindh Chithambaram, which involved winning the last two classical rounds, saw him crowned the Chennai Grand Masters 2024 champion while GM V Pranav remained unbeaten throughout to claim the Challengers title in Chennai on Monday. With the Masters category witnessing a three-way tie for the top spot, Aravindh defeated GM Levon Aronian in the first blitz play-off and then held his nerve to draw the second with black pieces to clinch the second edition of the competition.

The Chennai Grand Masters 2024 featured two categories-Masters and Challengers. With a rating average of 2729, the Masters presented a more competitive field this time around. The debuting Challengers, meanwhile, was designed to provide emerging Indian talent the chance to compete in a top-class tournament. Earlier, Aravindh had catapulted himself into title contention by registering his second successive win in the competition while overnight joint leaders GM Arjun Erigaisi and Levon Aronian were held to a draw.

Aravindh, who had ended Arjun's unbeaten run in the earlier round, dominated the final round game against GM Parham Maghsoodloo with black pieces. He opted for the Queen's Gambit declined in the English opening and took control of the board in the middle game after Parham traded the queens in the 24th move. He then drove home the advantage in a knight-pawn ending and forced a three-way tie for the top spot.

On the other boards, Aronian settled for a quick draw against GM Amin Tabatabaei and Arjun failed to breach the defence of GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in 38 moves and shared the point. With Aravindh topping the table with a superior tie-break score, Aronian and Arjun faced off in the two-game blitz play-off and both the players managed to win the game with black pieces to force a sudden death. Aronian then bid 6.40 minutes to play black and held Arjun to a draw to set up the final against Aravindh.

In the title clash, Aravindh pounced on a late error from Aronian to win a rook-pawn end game with white in the first blitz game. The Indian then held on with black to grab the title. Since three players were tied on 4.5 points after 7 classical rounds, all three will take home a cash prize of Rs 11 lakh each. In the Challengers category, Pranav needed just a draw against GM Luke Mendonca while the latter had to find a way to win against Indian to clinch the crown.

Playing white, Pranav opted for the King Pawn opening with Mendonca responding with Sicilian Defense. The Indian played a solid game and did not allow his opponent any opportunities to control the board and signed a truce after 41 moves to take home the Challengers title and a prize purse of Rs 6 lakh. Pranav, who ended the competition with four wins and three draws, will now also get a direct entry in the Masters category next year.

In the day's other matches, GM Murali Karthikeyan defeated GM R Vaishali while GM Abhimanyu Puranik played out a draw against GM Raunak Sadhwani. GM D Harika tried her best to eke out her first win of the tournament but had to settle for a draw against GM M Pranesh. Speaking to ANI, the Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Udhayanidhi Stalin said that the Tamil Nadu government has continuously supported chess and almost 31 Grandmasters are from the state.

"It was very well organised by the SDIT and the government of Tamil Nadu and the Chess Association. We have been continuously supporting. Almost 31 Grandmasters are from Tamil Nadu right now. That's how much importance we give not only to chess but to all the sports...," Stalin said. (ANI)