Chennai Grand Masters Round 1: Harikrishna, Eljanov Start With Wins

GMs Pentala Harikrishna and Pavel Eljanov started with wins over GMs Arjun Erigaisi and Parham Maghsoodloo respectively in two high-pressure, error-prone games to share the lead with a point apiece after the first round of the Chennai Grand Masters 2023. Both players kept their nerves under check in a quicker time control which seemed to be the deciding factor of the day.

The other two encounters of the day between GMs Levon Aronian and Gukesh Dommaraju, and GMs Alexandr Predke and Sanan Sjugirov ended in almost uneventful draws.

The Chennai Grand Masters continues with round two on Saturday, December 16, at 4:45 a.m. ET/10:45 CET/3:15 p.m. IST.

Chennai Grand Masters Round 1 Results

The Venue

Such a location offers breathtaking views of the sea, the estuary, and the beach, even under the downcast sky of unseasonal rain, all making it an unusual venue for the tournament.

Inauguration And Drawing Of Lots

As is common in India, the tournament started with the lighting of the traditional lamp, in the presence of the organizers and officials of the provincial state government of Tamil Nadu, which has contributed the entire cost of the tournament.

The organization brought in an unusual touch for the drawing of lots too, as the players got to choose between eight paintings done by the budding young artist Akhil Anand, son of former world champion Vishy Anand. The paintings were based on the theme of “Poikkal Kuthirai,” (translated as “false-legged horse”), a folk dance of the state of Tamil Nadu.

The most entertaining part of the evening was when Aronian came up to pick his number, and Akhil ventured to help him.

“You know, you can always get tricked by Anand” – 😉 @LevAronian pic.twitter.com/7qBlugWf3e

— Chess.com – India (@chesscom_in) December 15, 2023

Round 1

One of the inevitable narratives of the tournament is the qualification targets for the FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2024 for Gukesh and Arjun (through the FIDE Circuit) and Maghsoodloo (through rating). It is anyone’s guess whether this applies considerable pressure to them, and allows the others in the tournament to play with a more relaxed mindset.

Another major factor is the time control being followed, which is not very standard for a tournament of this stature: the entire game is played with 90 minutes for each player on the clock, with an increment of 30 seconds per move from the beginning. Appearing on the live commentary, GM Anish Giri called it “unusual” and proclaimed, “I have never played with this time control in my life!”

The arguments can be easily understood when we look at a couple of critical moments from both games.

After defending a difficult ending for a long time, Maghsoodloo had to find 51.Rb1! to salvage a draw here, which was probably made difficult by less time on the clock. He blundered with 51.Re3?? and Eljanov went on to win the game. 

When asked about the lack of pressure on him to play for a specific target, Eljanov answered pretty straight-forwardly: “Yes, I was very relaxed. I didn’t prepare much before the game. I slept very well—helped me get over jet lag.” It showed on the board too, as Eljanov looked to be steady throughout the game with no outward show of emotions on the board.

Harikrishna confessed to not having prepared the specific simplistic opening variation of the day against Arjun, but was rewarded with a critical error from his opponent early in the game.

Here, a simple scheme like 15…Kf7 with further development of his pieces would have preserved equality, but Arjun erred with 15…Bxc3? overlooking the prosaic 16.Rc1!, which gave Harikrishna an everlasting initiative in one of his favorite parts of the game, the endgame. 

From his young days, Harikrishna’s forte was his endgame ability. Hence, when an endgame with rooks and opposite-colored bishops came up on the board, it was expected that Hari would be able to convert his advantage. But with both players having under a minute on the clock, and both looking outwardly tense at the board, it was Hari’s turn to overlook a simple tactic.

Harikrishna had to find 49.f5!, sacrificing the pawn, to facilitate the push of his h-pawn here, but he blundered with 49.Ra7??. After the further 50.f5, Arjun seemed to have a simple tactic to secure the draw:

Arjun had to find 50…Rh1+ 51.Kd2 Rxh5 to level the game here, as the loss of White’s h-pawn cannot be avoided. However, he blundered in turn with 50…Rxf5?? allowing 51.a6 and Harikrishna went on to win the game. 

This fascinating encounter is our Game of the Day, analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below (coming soon.)

The other two games ended in draws after short fights. The Aronian-Gukesh encounter was billed as the game of the day, but it never rose to high levels of excitement. Aronian confessed after the game that he was still not over jetlag and still missing his sleep.

Standings After Round 1

How to watch the Chennai Grand Masters 2023