Gambit declined

Chennai Grand Masters Chess: With a late surge that involved winning the last two classical rounds, Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram was on Monday crowned champion of the Chennai Grand Masters 2024 while GM V. Pranav remained unbeaten throughout to claim the title in the Challengers category at the Anna Centenary Library here on Monday.

With the Masters category witnessing a three-way tie for the top spot, Chithambaram defeated GM Levon Aronian in the first blitz play-off and then held his nerve to draw the second with black pieces to clinch the second edition of the competition.

Earlier, Chithambaram had catapulted himself into title contention by registering his second successive win in the competition while overnight joint leaders GM Arjun Erigaisi and Levon Aronian were held to a draw.