Nihal Sarin shrugged off a poor begin to pull off an upset win over the top-seed Arjun Erigaisi in the fourth spherical of the Masters part in the Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters chess match 2025 right here on Sunday.
Rapidly-rising German Vincent Keymer drew with the seasoned Dutchman Anish Giri to take his tally to three.5 factors and elevated the lead over the remainder of the sphere to a full level.
Arjun (Elo 2776), coming off a victory over American Ray Robson in the earlier spherical, discovered compatriot Nihal (2692) a robust nut to crack and went down in 70 strikes.
Nihal, who suffered a loss by the hands of Vidit Gujrathi in the third spherical, bounced again strongly to tame Arjun in a match that lasted over 4 hours.
It was a morale-boosting win for Nihal, who misplaced two of his first three video games.
“A lot of ups and downs today. Arjun defended like an absolute machine. I did get quite lucky in the end. It was quite hard for me after yesterday’s game. I just tried my best to somehow find the motivation to keep playing,” Nihal after his first win in the match.
In the one different decisive consequence in the Masters occasion, Karthikeyan Murali acquired the higher of Dutch participant Jorden van Foreest in a 46-move match. The Chennai GM, who gained an entry into the Masters part after the pullout of Vladmir Fedoseev, raised his recreation after a quiet begin to overpower his opponent.
Indian GMs Vidit and V. Pranav break up the purpose after a 86-move recreation.
The all-American matchup between Ray Robson and Awonder Liang ended in a draw after simply 26 strikes.
In the Challengers part, Abhimanyu Puranik jumped into the only lead after a stable win over R. Vaishali, who has been off-colour so far.
Birthday boy Diptayan Ghosh, in the meantime, celebrated with a victory over G. B. Harshavardhan and is half-a-point behind the chief together with Leon Luke Mendonca.
The outcomes (fourth spherical): Masters: Karthikeyan Murali (2) bt Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 1), Ray Robson (USA, 2) drew with Awonder Liang (USA, 2), Nihal Sarin (1.5) bt Arjun Erigaisi (2.5), V. Pranav (1.5) drew with Vidit Gujrathi (2), Vincent Keymer (Ger, 3.5) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 2).
Challengers: G. B. Harshavardhan (0.5) misplaced to Diptayan Ghosh (3), Pa. Iniyan (2.5) bt Aryan Chopra (1), B. Adhiban (2) drew with M. Pranesh (3), Leon Mendonca (3) bt D. Harika, Abhimanyu Puranik (3.5) bt R. Vaishali (1).
Fifth spherical pairings: Masters: Anish vs. Karthikeyan, Vidit vs. Keymer, Arjun vs. Pranav, Liang vs. Nihal, van Foreest vs. Robson.
Challengers: Vaishali vs. Harshavardhan, Harika vs. Abhimanyu, Pranesh vs. Leon, Aryan vs. Adhiban, Diptayan vs. Iniyan.
