India’s top-rated GM Arjun Erigaisi wins the 5th Stepan Avagyan Memorial tournament
Arjun Erigaisi, India’s top-rated Grandmaster, displayed exceptional performance in the ongoing 10-player Stepan Avagyan Memorial 2024 tournament to secure victory with one more round to go in Jermuk, Armenia, on June 17, Monday.
Arjun defeated Volodar Murzin from Russia with white pieces in 63 moves to finish the eighth round, the penultimate round, with a total of six points, a full 1.5 points lead ahead of three players, who are in the second position with 4.5 points.
USA's Sevian Samuel, Iran’s Tabatabaei M Amin, and Deac Bogdan Daniel from Romania are currently tied for second with 4.5 points apiece. With a 1.5-point lead, Arjun Erigaisi is deemed the competition winner with a round to spare.
Moving into the details, Arjun’s opponent Murzin made a minute error in the rook and minor piece endgame. That's all it took for Arjun to seize his opportunity and win the game.
Arjun Erigaisi is at the fourth spot in FIDE live ratings
With four wins and as many drawn games in eight rounds of the campaign, Arjun Erigaisi propelled to World No. 4 in the live ratings with 2779.9 which indicates he is just 15.8 Elo rating points away from moving past the World No. 3, Fabiano Caruana of the USA.
The 20-year-old Arjun will next compete with Manuel Petrosyan from Armenia in the last round of the single round-robin tournament on June 18, Tuesday.
It’s important to note that Arjun’s earlier performance in the French Team Chess Championship helped him propel to the top five in the FIDE standings, making him the highest-ranked Indian.
Arjun has been dominating the past few competitions. He finished second in the TePe Sigeman Chess Tournament and secured the joint-fifth spot in the Sharjah Masters Open Tournament. Later, he also won the Menorca Open crown in April moving past GMs Kirill Alekseenko and Maksim Chigaev.
A look at the world's top 10 FIDE live ratings
Magnus Carlsen (NOR) — 2831.8
Hikaru Nakamura (USA) — 2801.6
Fabiano Caruana(USA) — 2795.6
Arjun Erigaisi (IND) — 2779.9
Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS) — 2770.0
Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB) — 2768.5
D. Gukesh (IND) — 2763.0
R. Praggnanandhaa (IND) — 2757.4
Wesley So (USA) — 2757.0
Wei Yi (CHN) — 2755.0