Aravindh & Pragg finish on top @ Avagyan Memorial, Armenia

Indian Grandmasters Aravindh Chithambaram & Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu powered to a 6.5/9 score finishing 1.5 points ahead of the field in the 6th Stepan Avagyan Memorial – RR tournament at Jermuk, Armenia. Better tie-break gave GM Aravindh the title, his second big one, after the Prague Masters in March. GM Kollars Dmitrij of Germany took the third spot with 5.0 points, followed by GMs Sevian Samuel (USA) & Bjerre Jonas Buhl (Denmark) at 4.5 points. The category 17 Super Grandmaster tournament ran from 29th May to 6th June, 2025.

GM Aravindh’s 8.7 FIDE rating points gain along with tournament rating performance of ELO 2824 takes the Chennai lad to World No. 9 in LIVE rankings at 2757.8 ahead of Ian Nepomniachtchi. With Aravindh’s elevation here, India now has four players in the top ten viz., Gukesh, Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa and Aravindh, quite a tall order.

Equally impressive was fellow Indian GM Praggnanandhaa who came up the ELO 2823 tournament rating performance. Pragg now moves to World No. 6 with career best rating of 2774.2 in LIVE rankings. Both these gems come from the same stable Chess Gurukul, that of Grandmaster R B Ramesh, who has been nurturing, mentoring and training the duo for several years now.

This time around it turned out to be a big success for India, with both their GMs finishing jointly on top. With four wins and five draws each Aravindh and Pragg outclassed the field, improving their ELOs and their world rankings. In fact, the Indian duo have so far shared 4 big titles this year viz., Aravindh winning the Prague Masters & Avagyan Memorial, Jermuk while Praggnanandhaa coasted to Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee & GCT Superbet Romania titles. At half way mark, the FIDE Circuit for the Candidates see Pragg, Aravindh, Ding & Giri leading the pack. With close to seven months and several tournaments to go, it could still throw in surprises.

GMs Kollars Dmitrij (5.0) and Sevian Samuel (4.5) remained undefeated, while top Dane Bjerre Jonas Buhl (4.5) showed promise losing just a single game to the eventual winner.

Aravindh Chithambaram (2749) – Gledura Benjamin (2668) 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd2 d5 6. Nf3 b6 7. cxd5 exd5 8. Rc1 c5 9. Bd3 Ba6 10. Bxa6 Nxa6 11. O-O Ne4 12. Qa4 Nxd2 13. Nxd2 Nc7 14. dxc5 bxc5 15. Rfd1 Bxc3 16. Rxc3 Ne6 17. Nf3 Qd6 18. Rcd3 Rfd8 19. R1d2 d4 20. exd4 cxd4 21. Qd1 Qa6 22. a3 Rd5 23. Nxd4 Rad8? (23…Nf4 keeps the balance)

24. Nc6 Rxd3 25. Nxd8 Nf4 26. Rxd3 Nxd3 27. Qb3 Ne5 28. Qb8 Nd7 29. Qa8 Nf8 30. Qd5 Qf6 31. g3 g5 32. Nc6 Ne6 33. Qe5 Qxe5 34. Nxe5 Nd4 35. Kg2 f6 36. Nf3 Nb3 37. Kf1 Kf7 38. Ke2 Ke6 39. Nd2 Nd4+ 40. Kd3 Nc6 41. Nc4 h5 42. b4 a6 43. Ke4 f5+ 44. Ke3 Kd5 45. Nb6+ Ke5 46. Nd7+ Kd5 47. f4 gxf4+ 48. Kxf4 1-0

Hakobyan Aram (2620) – Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (2767) 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 a5 6. Nf3 O-O 7. Qc2 Bd6 8. Bg5 Nbd7 9. O-O h6 10. Bxf6 Nxf6 11. Nc3 c6 12. e4 Nxe4 13. Nxe4 dxe4 14. Qxe4 c5 15. Rad1 Qc7 16. Rfe1 Ra6 17. d5 exd5 18. Qxd5 Be7 19. Qe5 Rd6 20. Rd5 Be6 21. Rxc5 Qd8 22. Qe2 Bf6 23. Rb5 b6 24. c5 bxc5 25. Rxc5 a4 26. b3 a3 27. Qc2 Qb6 28. Bf1 Rfd8 29. Rb5 Qc6 30. Qxc6 Rxc6 31. Ra5 Bb2 32. Ra7 Rc2 33. Bc4 Bxc4 34. bxc4 Bc3 35. Rb1 Rxa2 36. Rb3 Bb2 37. Kg2 Rc8 38. Ne1 Bd4 39. Raxa3 Rxf2+ 40. Kh3 g5 41. Nf3? (White goes down faster. 41. Nd3 may delay the proceedings a bit, but black has an Iguana’s grip on the position)

41… Rxc4 42. g4 Bc5 43. Kg3 Bxa3 44. Kxf2 Bc5+ 45. Kg3 Bd6+ 46. Kh3 f5 47. gxf5 g4+ 48. Kg2 Rc2+ 49. Kf1 gxf3 50. Rxf3 Rxh2 51. Rf2 Rh4 52. Rg2+ Kf7 53. Rg6 Bf4 54. Kg2 Bg5 55. Ra6 Rf4 56. Ra5 Kf6 57. Kg3 Rb4 58. Rc5 h5 59. Rc6+ Kxf5 60. Rc5+ Kg6 61. Rc3 Bf4+ 62. Kf3 Kf5 63. Ra3 Be5 64. Rd3 h4 65. Kg2 Kg4 66. Rd1 Rb2+ 67. Kh1 Re2 68. Rg1+ Bg3 69. Rg2 Re1+ 70. Rg1 Re4 71. Rg2 Kf3 72. Rg1 Bf2 73. Rb1 Re2 74. Kh2 Kg4 75. Rf1 Bd4+ 76. Kh1 Be3 77. Rf3 Re1+ 78. Kg2 Rg1+ 0-1

Final Rankings: 1-2 Aravindh Chithambaram V R, Praggnanandhaa R (both India) 6.5, 3 Kollars Dmitrij (Germany) 5.0, 4-5 Sevian Samuel (USA), Bjerre Jonas Buhl (Denmark) 4.5, 6-8 Yakubboev Nodirbek (Uzbekistan), Xu Xiangyu (China), Hakobyan Aram (Armenia) 4.0, 9 Hovhannisyan Robert (Armenia) 3.5, 10 Gledura Benjamin (Hungary) 2.5

Complete Results

Picture Courtesy: Official Site