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Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi maintained his lead at the top of the Chennai Grand Masters 2024 standings with four points despite being held to a draw by Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran in the round five clash on Saturday, November 9. The other big contest of the day saw Armenian American GM Levon Aronian defeat GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, to cut down the lead of Arjun Erigaisi to just half a point.
After storming into a one-point lead in the Chennai Grand Masters 2024 ahead of round five, Arjun Erigaisi got pushed by Parham Maghsoodloo in the latter half of the middlegame before he managed to equalise the position and earned himself a draw. It led to Levon Aronian’s win over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave becoming vital for the Armenian American to get a step closer to catching up with the Indian superstar in his home tournament.
Levon Aronian is just half a point behind Arjun Erigaisi in Chennai Grand Masters 2024
Levon Aronian spoke about his performance against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave after the big win, and said, “Today I could play easily without thinking! Sometimes it's more of a psychological thing—you put pressure on your opponent to make difficult decisions. You have an easy play, you get ahead on time, (and) you feel this is the way to play.” He also mentioned that the Frenchman got too nervous and played way too fast at some point when the pressure was applied on him.
Meanwhile, in the Challengers series, GM Pranav Venkatesh drew his first game of the Chennai Grand Masters 2024 against fellow countryman and GM Raunak Sadhwani, but still, he found himself a point ahead of the rest of the field with 4.5 points in five rounds. He is followed by GM Leon Mendonca and Raunak Sadhwani on 3.5 points and three points respectively, still in the hunt to overhaul Pranav Venkatesh’s lead at the top of the standings.
