Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram was crowned champion of the Chennai Grand Masters, his first Classical Super Tournament, on Monday, November 11. On the other hand, Grandmaster V. Pranav remained unbeaten till the end and ended up claiming the title in the Challengers category. Chithambaram finished ahead of three of the world’s top 15 players, Levon Aronian, Vidit Gujrathi and Arjun Erigaisi, who is also India’s highest-ranked player.
The 25-year-old recorded five consecutive draws in the first five rounds and later ended up registering a massive win over Arjun. His win was then followed up with another win against Parham Maghsoodloo in the final round which led him to a three-way tie for first place with Arjun and Aronian. Later in the tiebreaker rounds, Aravindh won both the blitz games against former world no. 2 Aronian and walked away with a win.
I had nothing to lose in this tournament: Aravindh Chithambaram
After the win, the newly crowned Chennai Grand Masters champion revealed that the fact that he had nothing to lose took the pressure off of him. He said, “I had nothing to lose in this tournament which took pressure off me especially against top guys. Never thought I would win it until I won it. I was trying to be solid in most of the games which worked out well.” Notably, earlier in September, Aravindh made his super tournament debut after he was named a last-minute replacement for defending champion Vidit Gujrathi.
Speaking of his career, Aravindh became a U-19 national champion at the age of 12 and later won silver at the World U14 Championship. He was crowned Grandmaster at the age of 15. At the Chennai Open GM tournament, Aravindh showed up four GMs, two IMs and posted a rating performance of 2728-400.