18-year-old Erigaisi is new national chess champion

PTI

Kanpur, Mar 3

Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi of Telangana won the 58th edition of Senior National Chess Championship here on Thursday, edging out fellow GMs of Tamil Nadu D Gukesh and P Iniyan in a tie-breaker after the trio finished on 8.5 points each.

The 18-year-old Erigaisi remained unbeaten in 11 rounds and ended up with a score of 8.5 points for his maiden Senior National title. He drew his final round game against former champion S P Sethuraman.

Gukesh had to settle for a draw against Aryan Chopra while Iniyan moved up to 8.5 points with a fine win over fellow GM Mitrabha Guha of West Bengal.

Defending champion Aravindh Chithambaram of Tamil Nadu finished fourth with eight points, while top-seed and pre-tournament favourite B Adhinan ended a distant 20th.

Erigaisi and Gukesh began the day on eight points and both had a chance of laying their hands on the top prize. Iniyan defeated Guha to make it an interesting battle for the title.

However, Erigaisi and Gukesh were held to draws, meaning a three-way tie for the top place with the former emerging victorious on the basis of a better tie-break score.

Erigaisi has been in impressive form of late and recently won the Tata Steel Challengers title in Wijk Aan Zee, the Netherlands.

The champion received Rs 6 lakh prize money.