Arjun Erigaisi storms into quarterfinals of FIDE World Cup  

Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi stormed into the quarterfinals of the FIDE World cup, defeating two-time winner Levon Aronian of United States in the second game of the round of 16 here on Saturday.

Arjun was in control throughout, and the fact that his victory came with black pieces speaks volumes about the resilience of the Indian to adapt to different situations in quick time.

Having drawn the first game under classical time control against someone who has been in peak form recently, Arjun was simply at his best in the return game with the black pieces, getting the position to his liking. As far as the opening went, the Indian made it clear that the first drawn game with the slightly favourable colour had little impact on him.

The Italian Opening has been under scrutiny at the World Cup, and Saturday was no exception. The middlegame featured a routine pawn structure, but Arjun was the first to break through in the centre, creating an uneven pawn formation with his knights prowling for kingside damage.

Aronian, generally a cool customer and until recently in fine form, lost his composure for the first time in the event as he found himself saddled with a difficult position to defend. As is often the case in such situations, the Armenian-turned-American ran out of ideas, and his 28^th move was testament to that.

Arjun’s next move, a pleasing-to-the-eye knight sacrifice, proved to be the final nail, leaving the Indian just three match wins away from annexing the World Cup.

On a day when Grandmaster P Harikrishna played out his second draw on the trot with Jose Eduardo Matinez Alcantara of Mexico, Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan cemented his place in the last eight at the expense of Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia.

Harikrishna will have to come back for the tiebreaker reserved on Sunday to see his fate in the 2 million USD event that also has top three places reserved for the next Candidates tournament.

In other games to end early, Sam Shankland of United States drew with Daniil Dubov of Russia to go to the tiebreaker while the all-Russian duel between Andrey Esipenko and Aleksey Grebnev also will be decided in the shorter format on Sunday.

Available results round 5 game 1: Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb) playing Frederic Svane (Ger); Levon Aronian (Usa) lost to Arjun Erigaisi (Ind) Sam Shankland (Usa) drew with Daniil Dubov (FID) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Alexander Donchenko (Ger) playing Liem Le Quang (Vie); Gabriel Sargissian (Arm) lost to Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb) 0.5-1.5; Andrey Esipenko (Fid) drew with Aleksey Grebnev (Fid) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Sevian Samuel (Usa) playing Wei Yi (Chn); Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara (Mex) drew with P Harikrishna (Ind) 1-1 goes to tiebreak.