Bengaluru: On the finish of two days and eleven rounds of speedy video games, Arjun Erigaisi was the lone Indian to make the eight-man knockout of the Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour.
India’s chess grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi. (AFP)
The world No 4 – who gained three consecutive Freestyle Fridays earlier than heading to Paris – completed fourth with 6.5/11 factors whereas Ian Nepomniachtchi and Magnus Carlsen topped the spherical robin standings with 8.5/11 factors.
In an earlier interplay with HT, Arjun spoke about following the Freestyle occasion in Weissenhaus that passed off earlier this 12 months (which he wasn’t part of), intently and studying a good deal by simply watching the video games.
The opposite three Indians — Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi and reigning world champion Gukesh — are out of operating for the $2,00,000 high prize and can now play for the Ninth-Twelfth spot in classical matches beginning on Wednesday.
Vidit, who flew to Paris days after his marriage ceremony, had a torrid outing, managing to win simply two video games out of 11 and located himself on the backside of the 12-player spherical robin standings. He usually discovered himself in promising positions, solely to run into time hassle, make errors and find yourself in scorching water. Gukesh, with three wins, completed the speedy stage only one spot above Vidit.
Spherical 9, which noticed all 4 Indians dropping their respective video games, had Carlsen doing Carlsen issues, throwing in a stupendous Queen sacrifice and turning round a worrisome place in opposition to Richard Rapport right into a win. “At some point it felt like a repetition would be a nice conclusion after a crazy game but I thought let’s keep it going a little bit more,” Carlsen mentioned.
“I didn’t think I was better but I also didn’t think I was running serious risks of losing there…It’s the kind of gamble you can make when you’re doing well in a tournament.”
For the classical format knockout that begins on Wednesday, gamers ranked 1-4 within the spherical robin can, so as, decide their opponent amongst gamers ranked from 5 by way of 8. The time management might be 90 minutes + 30-second increment per transfer.
Outcomes (solely Indians):
Spherical 7: R Praggnanandhaa misplaced to Gukesh; Nodirbek Abdusattorov misplaced to Arjun; Richard Rapport beat Vidit
Spherical 8: Vidit misplaced to Ian Nepomniachtchi; Arjun drew Rapport; Gukesh beat Vincent Keymer; Hikaru Nakamura drew Praggnanandhaa
Spherical 9: Praggnanandhaa misplaced to Fabiano Caruana; Nodirbek Abdusattorov beat Gukesh; Nepomniachtchi beat Arjun; Maxime Vachier-Lagrave beat Vidit
Spherical 10: Caruana misplaced to Vidit; Arjun drew Vachier-Lagrave; Gukesh misplaced to Rapport; Praggnanandhaa misplaced to Keymer
Spherical 11: Abdusattorov misplaced to Praggnanandhaa; Nepomniachtchi beat Gukesh; Vidit misplaced to Arjun
Prime-8: Nepomniachtchi, Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Arjun, Abdusattorov, Nakamura, Keymer, Caruana
ENDS