18-year-old Arjun Erigaisi conquers MPL 58th National Senior Chess Championship 2022

Teenagers claim the podium

Arjun Erigaisi won National Senior at the age of 18 years. Karthikeyan Murali won his first title in 2015 (16 years), his second triumph in 2016 (17 years), G Akash in 2012 (16 years), B Adhiban in 2009 (17 years) and Parimarjan Negi in 2010 (17 years). This year the entire podium finishers are teenagers - Arjun (18 years), Gukesh (16 years) and Iniyan (19 years). They all faced each other and each game ended in a draw. Arjun Erigaisi played two tournaments this year and he won both of them. The Age of Arjun Erigaisi which started last year, continues...

Iniyan - Mitrabha: 1-0

GM Iniyan P (TN) defeated the defending champion GM Mitrabha Guha (WB) in the final round.

White got a pleasant position out of the opening Petroff's Defence when his opponent opted for 8...Ne6. Black was unable to get out of the gate for the rest of the game and Iniyan comfortably scored a full point.

Lalith - Koustav: 0-1

IM Koustav Chatterjee (WB) after suffering a loss against GM D Gukesh, made three draws and then defeated IM Srihari L R (TN) in the penultimate round. He finished the tournament true to his performance in the first half of the event by winning against GM Lalith Rohit (PSPB) in style.

Lalith went wrong early in the opening, which caused him to face a lot of trouble. 12.b4 provoked a lot of attacks as White did not have a lot of choices left either. 12...e3 is almost winning for Black but Koustav chose an interesting continuation 12...Nf3+. It allowed White to regroup his position 13.Bxf3 Bxh3 14.Bh5 Qg5 15.Bxf7+ Kxf7 16.bxc5 Qxd5. White managed to exchange a bunch of pieces but the king being stranded at the center and a lack of piece coordination suddenly did not wither the troubles away.

How many times have you witnessed the queen being trapped at the center of the board? Well technically the queen is virtually trapped because it has a safe square at h4, however it is not a safe haven as White has a back rank weakness. It is evident that Black is completely winning and he wrapped it up in the next four moves.

Photo Gallery

Koustav Chatterjee and Pranav Venkatesh are the only two IMs to finish in top ten in this event. Both of them have a GM-norm each. It goes without saying that they are future GMs of India and it's just a matter of time.

For more Round 11 photos, click here and for Prize distribution Ceremony photos, click here.

Video Gallery

Some important tweets

GM Koneru Humpy, India's 7th GM and National Women 2013 champion

twitter.com/i/status/1499639632635756544

GM Abhijit Kunte, India's 4th GM and two-time National champion (1997 and 2000)

twitter.com/i/status/1499569671510851585

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly, India's 8th GM and six-times consecutive National champion (2003-2008)

twitter.com/i/status/1499330045554290693

IM P Konguvel, National champion (1995) and revered gentleman of the sport

twitter.com/i/status/1499423210768515078

GM Arjun Erigaisi, Winner of National Senior 2022

twitter.com/i/status/1499372801123229696

GM D Gukesh, National Senior 2022 Runner-up

twitter.com/i/status/1499383210333007872

GM Iniyan P, National Senior 2022 Second Runner-up

twitter.com/i/status/1499407352545439746

Do not miss the best thing on instagram today, touted by most of the Indian chess players.

A total of 184 players including 22 GMs and 30 IMs took part in this tournament organized by UP Chess Sports Association. The event was held at Ganges Club at Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh from 25th February to 3rd March 2022. The eleven-round Swiss league tournament has a time control of 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1

Replay Round 11 games

Round 10 results

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Final standings

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