Chennai Grand Masters: Aravindh wins Masters title, Pranav becomes Challengers champion

A late surge by GM Aravindh Chithambaram in the last two classical rounds helped him secure the Chennai Grand Masters title while GM V Pranav remained unbeaten throughout to claim the Challengers crown here 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 nerves to draw the second with black pieces to clinch the second edition of the competition.

Aravindh catapulted himself into title contention by registering his second successive win in the competition while overnight joint leaders GM Arjun Erigaisi and Levon Aronian played out 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 force a three-way tie for the top spot.

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 seven classical rounds, all three will take home a cash prize of Rs 11 lakh each.

In the Challengers event, Pranav needed just a draw against GM Luke Mendonca while the latter had to find a way to win against the Indian to clinch the Challengers crown.