Arjun Erigaisi, Divya Deshmukh Clinch Indian National Championships

The 18-year-old GM Arjun Erigaisi won the 58th MPL National Senior Championship, and 16-year-old WGM Divya Deshmukh clinched the 47th MPL National Women’s Championship.

Scoring 8.5 points out of 11 rounds, Arjun tied for first place with GM Gukesh Dommaraju and GM Iniyan Panneerselvam. A better Buchholz tiebreak score helped Arjun to win the championship. Gukesh and Iniyan secured second and third places respectively. It is interesting to note that Arjun led the event from the beginning and never trailed.

In the 47th MPL National Women’s Senior Championship, WGM Divya Deshmukh dominated the field. After a draw in the first round against Varshita Jain (1429), Divya scored seven wins in a row and maintained a one-point lead over her nearest rival prior to the final round. She secured a draw in the final round against IM Soumya Swaminathan to claim the champion’s trophy with 8/9.

Arjun Erigaisi with the trophy that he took home as well as a cash prize of ₹6 lakhs (₹1 lakhs = $1,300). Photo: Rakesh Kulkarni / Chess.com.

Fist bump before the game. Photo: Rakesh Kulkarni / Chess.com.

“I was caught in the opening. I managed to create something out of nothing,” said Arjun about his game against GM Abhijeet Gupta.

Arjun also mentioned that his game against Pranav V (who finished 10th in the event) was the scariest of all.

Gukesh D took home ₹ 5 lakhs. Photo courtesy: AICF.

Speaking to Chess.com India, Gukesh shared that he liked his game against GM Abhijeet Gupta: “Abhijeet showed great fighting spirit, and I was lucky to have some nice defensive resources.”

You can listen to the complete interview with Gukesh here.

Iniyan won ₹4 lakhs. Photo courtesy: AICF.

GM Iniyan P lost to FM Suyog Wagh in the second round. Four straight wins helped him to return to the top tables. Iniyan considers his game against GM Adhiban B as one of his best in the tournament. He was still in his home preparation until the 27th move.

Watch the complete interview with Iniyan here.

Rk.	SNo	Title	Name	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	GM	Arjun Erigaisi	2633	8.5	77.0	81.0	60.50
2	7	GM	Gukesh D	2614	8.5	75.5	81.5	61.75
3	15	GM	Iniyan P	2516	8.5	69.0	74.5	56.25
4	8	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram	2611	8.0	73.5	78.0	55.0
5	9	GM	Aryan Chopra	2585	8.0	71.5	76.6	53.75
6	26	IM	Koustav Chatterjee	2466	8.0	70.0	75.0	53.25
7	4	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2622	8.0	69.5	75.5	53.25
8	13	GM	Visakh N R	2522	8.0	68.0	72.5	50.25
9	5	GM	Sethuraman S P	2619	8.0	67.5	72.0	50.25
10	21	IM	Pranav V	2486	8.0	66.0	69.5	48.75

Utsab Chatterjee, Anustoop Biswas, and Sambit Panda secured nine-game IM norms in the tournament.
Full final standings here.

Divya Deshmukh won ₹5.50 lakhs. Photo courtesy: AICF.

“Not sure about my best game, but the toughest game was against Vaishali R,” said Divya in an interview with Chess.com India.

When we contacted GM Srinath Narayanan for his comments about the performances of Arjun and Divya, he summed it up in three words: “Really, really proud.”

Photo: Divya Deshmukh’s Twitter account.

Divya Deshmukh is the fourth-youngest player to win the senior national title. Photo: Tweet from Amit Sampat.

WIM Sakshi Chitlange secured second place and won ₹4.50 lakhs in the tournament. She completed her final WGM norm in the event and will be looking forward to reaching 2300 to attain the title. She liked her game against WGM Mary Ann Gomes:

Priyanka Nutakki secured third place and won the cash prize of ₹ 3.50 lakhs in the tournament. She became India’s latest woman grandmaster after making her final norm in the event. She considers her game against Pratyusha Bodda as one of her favorites:

Priyanka Nutakki with her coach GM Swayams Mishra. Photo: Swayam’s Twitter account.

Rk.	SNo	Title	Name	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	8	WGM	Divya Deshmukh	2301	8.0	47.5	51.5	46.50
2	19	WIM	Sakshi Chitlange	2205	7.0	48.5	53.0	37.25
3	9	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	2301	7.0	48.0	52.0	38.00
4	16	WGM	Srija Seshadri	2219	7.0	46.5	51.0	38.75
5	5	IM	Soumya Swaminathan	2360	6.5	51.0	55.5	38.50
6	1	IM	Vaishali R	2403	6.5	50.5	54.5	32.75
7	6	IM	Padmini Rout	2350	6.5	45.5	50.0	35.00
8	4	WGM	Mary Ann Gomes	2361	6.5	44.0	48.0	32.75
9	14	WIM	Priyanka K	2227	6.5	43.0	47.0	32.25
10	15	WIM	Parnali Dharia	2224	6.5	42.5	47.0	33.25