Chennai Grandmasters 2024: Vidit slumps to second consecutive defeat; Arjun Erigaisi settles for draw

Vidit Gujrathi got into time trouble versus Iranian Parham Maghsoodloo and couldn’t recover to slump to his second successive loss in the second round of the Chennai Grandmasters classical chess tournament at the Anna Centenary Library here on Wednesday.

“It was a very exciting game. We both played very well. The quality of game was very high until the moment we both got into time trouble. He only lost because he was in time trouble,” said Maghsoodloo after the win.

Arjun Erigaisi, who capitalised on Vidit’s blunder to win with black pieces in the first round, had to settle for a draw with Levon Aronian (US).

“Yesterday (on Tuesday), I got outplayed and then I got lucky in the end. Today, it was a very shaky game for both of us. I was worse at one point. We both missed so many chances,” said Arjun.

After two rounds, Arjun, Amin Tabatabaei (Iran), and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) are in the lead with 1.5 points each.

In the Challengers section, Leon Luke Mendonca (18) beat Harika Dronavalli to notch up his second successive win. Leon defeated Vaishali Rameshbabu in the first round.

Raunak Sadhwani (18), who was on the backfoot, managed to defend well enough for a draw with Vaishali.

Asked if he was satisfied with his performance, he said, “Not really. I got outplayed a bit. I didn’t remember my files. And she actually knew it. So, I was much worse at some point. But then I started to defend pretty fine. In the end, I think it was just a draw since no one could really make any big progress.”