Nihal Sarin stuns Arjun Erigaisi with double Queen sacrifice at Chennai Grand Masters 2025: 'Arjun defended like machine'

Tournament favourite Arjun Erigaisi suffered a crushing defeat against compatriot Nihal Sarin on Sunday at the Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters 2025 as Germany's Vincent Keymer took a one-point lead after the fourth round. As a result, Indian Grandmaster Erigaisi has slipped back to the World No.5 spot in the live rating, with R Praggnanandhaa reclaiming the fourth spot. Considering the little difference between their ratings, the positions are highly vulnerable to fluctuations after every result.

Keymer secured a 1-point lead despite playing out a draw against Dutch GM Anish Giri, while Vidit Gujrathi suffered the same fate against Pranav V. Karthikeyan Murali defeated Jorden Van Foreest of the Netherlands, and the all-American match between Awonder Liang and Ray Robson also finished as a draw.

Nihal beats Arjun after double Queen sacrifice

Playing with White pieces, Kerala's Nihal, who is known for his attacking gameplay, took 70 moves to beat Erigaisi as he secured his first win of the tournament with the legendary Viswanathan Anand on the commentary. However, he remains in the eighth spot in the 10-player standings with a score of 1.5. Erigaisi is second behind Keymer (3.5) with 2.5 points.

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Nihal had been failing to secure a draw or win despite having the right position in matches against Keymer and Giri, but against Erigaisi, he grabbed the opportunity in a tense endgame. Sarin, who made multiple blunders in the match, made up for it with his attacking game as he forced Erigaisi into a corner, and the latter made a blunder at the end.

Erigaisi's 67...Rxc5 hen 67...Rc1 was the best move, giving the decisive opening to Nihal as he committed a second Queen sacrifice and took out the opponent's Rook with a fork. The match ended with Nihal having a knight and a passed h-pawn as Erigaisi resigned.

“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 was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

How Nihal Sarin defeated Arjun Erigaisi:

In the Challengers section, Abhimanyu Puranik took the sole lead after beating R Vaishali, while Diptayan Ghosh defeated GB Harshavardhan. Leon Luke Mendonca and Ghosh are half a point behind Puranik.