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

by Shahid Ahmed - 04/03/2022

18-year-old Arjun Erigaisi expectedly won MPL 58th National Senior Chess Championship 2022. He edged past D Gukesh and Iniyan P on tie-breaks. All three of them scored 8.5/11. They received ₹600,000, ₹500,000 and ₹400,000 along with a trophy each respectively. The remaining top ten scored 8.0/10 each. Koustav Chatterjee and Pranav Venkatesh are the only two IMs to make it in the top 10. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹30,00,000. Only four players younger than Arjun have won the National Senior title in Indian chess history. It is evident that the future of Indian chess is very bright when the teenagers are winning National Senior in both Open and Women section. Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

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...

Champion - GM Arjun Erigaisi | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Runner-up GM D Gukesh | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Arjun Erigaisi and D Gukesh - winner and runner-up of National Championship 2022 | Video: ChessBase India

Second Runner-up GM Iniyan P | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

How Iniyan beat Adhiban with Outstanding opening prep | 3rd place at the National Championships 2022 | Video: ChessBase India

Top 3 (L to R) - 3rd GM Iniyan P, 1st GM Arjun Erigaisi and 2nd GM D Gukesh | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Arjun receives his championship trophy and a cash prize of worth ₹600,000 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

India no.4 Arjun Erigaisi remained undefeated, gained 11.1 Elo rating points, taking his live rating to 2671.1

Interview with the new National Senior champion - GM Arjun Erigaisi | Video: ChessBase India

GM Sethuraman S P (PSPB) - GM Arjun Erigaisi (TEL): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

GM D Gukesh (TN) - GM Aryan Chopra (DEL): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Gukesh misses the National title by a whisker | Video: ChessBase India

IM Pranav Venkatesh (TN) - GM Visakh N R (RSPB): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Iniyan - Mitrabha: 1-0

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

Position after 8...Ne6

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.

Iniyan P on finishing third at National Senior 2022 | Video: ChessBase India

Mitrabha's sole loss of the event cost him a top ten finish | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

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.

Position after 12.b4

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.

Position after 26...Re6

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.

IM Koustav Chatterjee scored an academic win over GM Lalith Rohit | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Photo Gallery

The crown is now on Arjun Erigaisi's head ! | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

4th GM Aravindh Chithambaram (TN) 8.0/11 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

5th GM Aryan Chopra (DEL) 8.0/11 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

6th IM Koustav Chatterjee (WB) 8.0/11| Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

7th GM Karthikeyan Murali (PSPB) 8.0/11 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

8th GM Visakh N R (RSPB) 8.0/11 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

9th GM Sethuraman S P 8.0/11 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

10th IM Pranav Venkatesh 8.0/11 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

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

National Championships 2022 | Day 7 highlights | Video: ChessBase India

The team of arbiters and organizers that made the National Championships 2022 a success | Video: ChessBase India

Utsab Chatterjee beats two GMs and one IM and scores an IM-norm | Video: ChessBase India

The only participant from Goa at the National Senior Championship 2022 - Ritviz Parab | Video: ChessBase India

Jeet Jain from Gujarat holds a 2600+ GM, hopes to become an IM by end of this year | Video: ChessBase India

IIT Kanpur students and their love for chess! | Video: ChessBase India

Some important tweets

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

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

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

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

GM Arjun Erigaisi, Winner of National Senior 2022

GM D Gukesh, National Senior 2022 Runner-up

GM Iniyan P, National Senior 2022 Second Runner-up

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

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	5	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2619	PSPB	7½	½ - ½	8	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2633	TEL	2
2	7	GM	Gukesh D	2614	TN	8	½ - ½	7½	GM	Aryan Chopra	2585	DEL	9
3	21	IM	Pranav V	2486	TN	7½	½ - ½	7½	GM	Visakh N R	2522	Rlys	13
4	15	GM	Iniyan P	2516	TN	7½	1 - 0	7½	GM	Mitrabha Guha	2510	WB	16
5	12	GM	Sengupta Deep	2528	PSPB	7	½ - ½	7½	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2611	TN	8
6	4	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2622	PSPB	7	1 - 0	7	IM	Aditya Mittal	2487	MAH	20
7	33	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2436	MAH	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2499	TEL	18
8	10	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2563	PSPB	6½	0 - 1	7	IM	Koustav Chatterjee	2466	WB	26
9	1	GM	Adhiban B.	2648	PSPB	6½	½ - ½	6½	IM	Gusain Himal	2408	Rlys	37
10	49	IM	Ratnakaran K.	2316	Rlys	6½	0 - 1	6½	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2628	PSPB	3
11	29	IM	Pranesh M	2455	TN	6½	0 - 1	6½	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2495	Rlys	19
12	22	IM	Aronyak Ghosh	2482	WB	6½	½ - ½	6½	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2442	Rlys	32
13	25	IM	Ravi Teja S.	2469	Rlys	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Sriram Jha	2379	LIC	42
14	40	IM	Shahil Dey	2400	ASM	6½	1 - 0	6½	IM	Krishna C R G	2466	Rlys	27
15	87		Panda Sambit	2059	ODI	6½	0 - 1	6½	IM	Das Sayantan	2459	Rlys	28
16	31	IM	Vignesh N R	2444	Rlys	6½	1 - 0	6½		Ilamparthi A R	1969	TN	107
17	35	IM	Nitin S.	2427	Rlys	6	½ - ½	6½	IM	Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2408	MAH	38
18	57	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2277	DEL	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2520	Rlys	14
19	55	IM	Sharma Dinesh K.	2283	LIC	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Neelash Saha	2445	WB	30
20	59		Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri	2263	TEL	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Laxman R.R.	2429	Rlys	34

Details

Final standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	2	GM	Erigaisi Arjun		IND	2633	TEL	8,5	77,0	81,0	60,50	0,0	6	11	8,5	7,39	1,11	10	11,1
2	7	GM	Gukesh D		IND	2614	TN	8,5	75,5	81,5	61,75	0,0	6	11	8,5	7,31	1,19	10	11,9
3	15	GM	Iniyan P		IND	2516	TN	8,5	69,0	74,5	56,25	0,0	7	11	8,5	7,37	1,13	10	11,3
4	8	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.		IND	2611	TN	8,0	73,5	78,0	55,00	0,0	5	11	8	7,85	0,15	10	1,5
5	9	GM	Aryan Chopra		IND	2585	DEL	8,0	71,5	76,5	53,75	0,0	6	11	8	7,29	0,71	10	7,1
6	26	IM	Koustav Chatterjee		IND	2466	WB	8,0	70,0	75,0	53,25	0,0	6	11	8	6,27	1,73	10	17,3
7	4	GM	Karthikeyan Murali		IND	2622	PSPB	8,0	69,5	75,5	53,25	0,0	6	11	8	8,86	-0,86	10	-8,6
8	13	GM	Visakh N R		IND	2522	Rlys	8,0	68,0	72,5	50,25	0,0	6	11	8	7,86	0,14	10	1,4
9	5	GM	Sethuraman S.P.		IND	2619	PSPB	8,0	67,5	72,0	49,75	0,0	6	11	8	8,54	-0,54	10	-5,4
10	21	IM	Pranav V		IND	2486	TN	8,0	66,0	69,5	48,75	0,0	7	11	8	7,60	0,40	10	4,0

Details

Related news:

	MPL 58th National Senior R10: Gukesh rejoins Arjun Erigaisi at the top @ 03/03/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	MPL 58th National Senior R8-9: Arjun Erigaisi gains sole lead 7.5/9 @ 02/03/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	MPL 58th National Senior R6-7: Arjun Erigaisi and Gukesh share the lead 6.0/7 @ 01/03/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	MPL 58th National Senior R5: Lalit, Abhijeet and Koustav score to join five-way lead @ 28/02/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	MPL 58th National Senior R3-4: Koustav Chatterjee shocks Sethuraman @ 27/02/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	MPL 58th National Senior R1-2: Maharashtra's Suyog Wagh and Kashish Jain score big upsets @ 26/02/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Adhiban gets top billing in MPL 58th National Senior Chess Championship @ 24/02/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)