Erigaisi rises to world No. 2

India’s Arjun Erigaisi jumped to second place in the world chess rankings thanks to his victory over Alexey Sarana in the Chennai Grand Masters here on Thursday. He is jointly leading the Masters category alongside Amin Tabatabaei after three rounds.

Starting with the black pieces, Arjun reacted to Sarana’s Queen’s Pawn Opening as he engaged him in the Indian Game before swiftly going for an East Indian Defense.

Both players knocked off their kings early in the tie while remaining locked in an intense battle before Arjun earned the upper hand, converting it into his competition’s second win.

As a result, the 21-year-old has reclaimed his 2,800 ELO rating, going past Fabiano Caruana to take the second place in the world rankings.

Also in Round 3 of the Masters category, Amin Tabatabaei caused a big upset as he beat French Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with his unique tactical precision.

In the meantime, Levon Aronian came up with a dominant victory over Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran, asserting his presence in the event.

India’s Vidit Gujrathi brushed aside his consecutive defeats with a gritty yet tactical draw against local favourite Aravindh Chithambaram. Also, Pranav V continued his outstanding streak in the Challengers category, producing his third straight success by beating Karthikeyan Murali.

At the same time, Pranesh M defeated Vaishali Rameshbabu to strengthen his position. However, a hard-fought fixture between Raunak Sadhwani and Leon Mendonca ended in a draw, as did the Harika Dronavalli-Abhimanyu Puranik clash.

After Round 3, Arjun and Tabatabaei jointly lead the Masters category with 2.5 points, with Aronian in third, 0.5 points behind.