India No 1 Arjun Erigaisi marched into the quarterfinals of the FIDE Chess World Cup in Goa on Saturday. Erigaisi defeated USA's Levon Aronian 1.5-0.5 in Round 5 to advance.

Pentala Harikrishna, the only other Indian to reach Round 5, tied 1-1 with Mexican Jose Martinez after their second classical game also ended in a draw. They will play a set of tie-breakers on Sunday to determine the winner.

Erigaisi had black against Aronian in their second game today. The duo had settled for an uneventful draw in their first game on Friday.

In an even game that seemed to be heading to another draw, Aronian made a couple of blunders. Though he got away with a faulty Queen move, Erigaisi pounced on the second chance when the two-time World Cup winner slided his rook into a bad position. Erigaisi offered a knight sacrifice that would have got him a free rook. At that point, on move 38, Aronian resigned.

ADVERTISEMENT

The World Cup is a strong knockout tournament that began earlier this month with 206 players, including World Champion D Gukesh and Women's World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh. World No 1 Magnus Carlsen, who is also the reigning World Cup winner, is not participating in the event.

TAGS

Google News Add as a preferred source on Google
The comments posted here/below/in the given space are not on behalf of Onmanorama. The person posting the comment will be in sole ownership of its responsibility. According to the central government's IT rules, obscene or offensive statement made against a person, religion, community or nation is a punishable offense, and legal action would be taken against people who indulge in such activities.