Daring Indian GM stuns World No. 5 from just 2 seconds on clock

India's Aravindh Chithambaram stunned World No. 5 Alireza Firouzja in the final round to finish tied-first in the rapid section of the Grand Chess Tour: Superbet Poland Rapid & Blitz event.

The 25-year-old from Tamil Nadu finished on 11 points, sharing the top spot with Slovenian Vladimir Fedoseev and Frenchman Firouzja. R Praggnanandhaa and Levon Aronian finished on 10 points each.

Chithambaram, with an Elo of 2550 in rapid chess, punched above his weight, especially in the final three rounds, scoring two big wins. First, he upset local favourite Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2731) before forcing a win against Firouzja (2754), who is ranked fifth in rapid chess, in the final round.

Against Duda, Chithambaram played high-risk chess from the opening. He sacrificed his minor pieces to open up Duda's defences before getting the Pole to resign on move 36.

Chithambaram lost the penultimate round to Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2745), which meant he had to score a win against Firouzja to finish on top.

Chithambaram played fearless chess against the top seed but consumed so much time calculating that he was left with just two seconds on the clock at one point in the endgame. The young Indian managed to wriggle out of trouble and simultaneously put Firouzja under pressure. Ironically, the Frenchman, who had more than double the time on his clock, ended up losing on time.

Chithambaram had a fabulous 2024, during which he was the best-performing GM among those in the top 100. He amassed 64 rating points last year, more than the top two Indian duo of D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi.