Indian chess grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi picked up two back-to-back victories to clinch the Abu Dhabi Masters chess title here on Thursday.
Taking on the ninth-seeded David Anton of Spain, Arjun maintained his calm and composure and won the match in the 67th move to remain unbeaten and pocket the championship with 7.5 points, and won the prize purse of $15,000.
Arjun’s wins in the tournament came against compatriots Rohit Krishna, Deep Sengupta, Raunak Sadhwani, top-seed Wang Hao of China, Alexsandr Indjic (Serbia), and Guijjaro while he drew against Evgeny Tomashevky (Russia), Jorden van Foreest, and Ray Robson.
Uzbekistan’s Jovokhir Sindarov finished runner-up with a score of 7, while USA’s Ray Robson took the third place.
Meanwhile, other Indians in the fray, Aditya Samant, a FIDE Master, and the pack of Indian grandmasters Nihal Sarin, S P Sethuraman, Karthikeyan Murali, and Aryan Chopra scored 6.5 points to occupy the sixth to 10th spot. Nihal secured the sixth place followed by Sethuraman, Samant, Karthikeyan Murali, and Chopra.