Deep in thought: Nihal Sarin ponders his next move against Arjun Erigaisi at the Quantbox Chennai Grand Master chess tournament on Sunday, August 10, 2025.
| Photo Credit: B. VELANKANNI RAJ
Nihal Sarin shrugged off a poor start to pull off an upset win over the top-seed Arjun Erigaisi in the fourth round of the Masters section in the Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters chess tournament 2025 here on Sunday.
Rapidly-rising German Vincent Keymer drew with the seasoned Dutchman Anish Giri to take his tally to 3.5 points and increased the lead over the rest of the field to a full point.
Arjun (Elo 2776), coming off a victory over American Ray Robson in the previous round, found compatriot Nihal (2692) a tough nut to crack and went down in 70 moves.
Nihal, who suffered a loss at the hands of Vidit Gujrathi in the third round, bounced back strongly to tame Arjun in a match that lasted over four hours.
It was a morale-boosting win for Nihal, who lost two of his first three games.
“A lot of ups and downs today. Arjun defended like an absolute machine. I did get quite lucky in the end. It was quite hard for me after yesterday’s game. I just tried my best to somehow find the motivation to keep playing,” Nihal after his first win in the tournament.
In the only other decisive result in the Masters event, Karthikeyan Murali got the better of Dutch player Jorden van Foreest in a 46-move match. The Chennai GM, who gained an entry into the Masters section after the pullout of Vladmir Fedoseev, raised his game after a quiet start to overpower his opponent.
Indian GMs Vidit and V. Pranav split the point after a 86-move game.
The all-American matchup between Ray Robson and Awonder Liang ended in a draw after just 26 moves.
In the Challengers section, Abhimanyu Puranik jumped into the sole lead after a solid win over R. Vaishali, who has been off-colour thus far.
Birthday boy Diptayan Ghosh, meanwhile, celebrated with a victory over G. B. Harshavardhan and is half-a-point behind the leader along with Leon Luke Mendonca.
The results (fourth round): Masters: Karthikeyan Murali (2) bt Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 1), Ray Robson (USA, 2) drew with Awonder Liang (USA, 2), Nihal Sarin (1.5) bt Arjun Erigaisi (2.5), V. Pranav (1.5) drew with Vidit Gujrathi (2), Vincent Keymer (Ger, 3.5) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 2).
Challengers: G. B. Harshavardhan (0.5) lost to Diptayan Ghosh (3), Pa. Iniyan (2.5) bt Aryan Chopra (1), B. Adhiban (2) drew with M. Pranesh (3), Leon Mendonca (3) bt D. Harika, Abhimanyu Puranik (3.5) bt R. Vaishali (1).
Fifth round pairings: Masters: Anish vs. Karthikeyan, Vidit vs. Keymer, Arjun vs. Pranav, Liang vs. Nihal, van Foreest vs. Robson.
Challengers: Vaishali vs. Harshavardhan, Harika vs. Abhimanyu, Pranesh vs. Leon, Aryan vs. Adhiban, Diptayan vs. Iniyan.
Published – August 10, 2025 08:50 pm IST
