Teen Arjun Erigaisi clinches Abu Dhabi Masters
Abu Dhabi, August 25
Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi clinched the 28th Abu Dhabi Masters chess tournament, beating Spain’s David Anton Guijarro here today.
The 18-year-old emerged victorious over the Spaniard in the ninth and final round with 7.5 points.
Erigaisi also remained unbeaten throughout the nine rounds and finished half-a-point ahead of Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov.
Sindarov, on the other hand, beat Iran’s M Amin Tabatabaei to claim the second position.
Erigaisi, who is currently India’s No. 3 in the live ratings list, has been quite impressive in the recent times, having gained 35 Elo rating points after the recently-concluded Chess Olympiad. In Abu Dhabi, Erigaisi posted six wins and drew the other three games to emerge a clear winner in a field that included several GMs from across the world.
His victories came against compatriots Rohit Krishna, Deep Sengupta, Raunak Sadhwani, top-seed Wang Hao, Alexsandar Indjic and Guijarro. He drew against Evgeny Tomashevsky, Jorden van Foreest and Ray Robson.
GMs Nihal Sarin, SP Sethuraman, Karthikeyan Murali and Aryan Chopra and FIDE Master Aditya Samant scored 6.5 points. Jorden van Foreest took the third place followed by the USA’s Ray Robson, while Sarin was sixth followed by Sethuraman, Samant, Murali and Chopra to make the top-10.
