Arjun Erigaisi takes three wins, climbs to second place at the Road to Miami fast chess tournament

Arjun Erigaisi emphasized his skills in fast chess by knocking out Radolsaw Wojtaszek (Poland), Sam Shankland and Leinier Dominguez Perez (all US) to climb to second place after eight rounds of the online fast chess tournament. the FTX Road to Miami service on Mondays.

On a day where Arjun played against four higher-seeded players – all rated over 2700 – his only draw was against China’s Wei Yi.

With three wins and one draw, Arjun brought his total to 17/24, three points behind leader Samuel Sevian (USA). Overnight leader Jeffery Xiong (USA) and Jan Krzysztof Duda (Poland) shared third place at 16th/24th place.

In an event that yielded three points for every 16-player knockout win, eight players qualified for the knockout round. Seven more rounds to go.

Arjun caught Wojtaszek, once Viswanathan Anand’s ‘second’, in the net of control in 66 moves to get off to a good start to the day. In round 6, the national champion punished Shankland for his misjudgment on move 43 and was forced to resign 6 moves later.

The seventh inning saw an even match between Arjun and Wei Yi, the last of whom was forced to draw a straight draw in 41 moves. Against Perez, Arjun found a decisive breakthrough when his opponent made a mistake on the 30th move.

With the queens still on the board, it wasn’t long before Arjun held the advantage of having a rook before a bishop. Defeated and his position rapidly collapsing, Perez resigned on the 42nd move.

While Anish Giri has regained a lot of ground thanks to Arjun’s efforts, the other notable performer of the day was women’s world champion Ju Wenjun. The Chinese, who lost the first three rounds on Day One, returned to seventh by stunning the formidable trio of Richard Rapport, Shankland and Wei Yi.