Erigaisi wins 6th Sharjah Masters International Chess Championship

Producing a remarkable comeback, Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi finished on top in the final round of the prestigious 6th Sharjah Masters International Chess Championship 2023.

Organised by the Sharjah Cultural & Chess Club, the championship was held under the patronage of His Highness Dr. Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah.

Billed as the strongest international open tournament in the history of the game, the Sharjah Masters International Chess Championship witnessed battle on the board between 230 male and female players, including 95 Grandmasters, representing 64 federations, with an average player rating of 2618.

The 6th Sharjah Masters 2023 International Chess Championship offered a prize purse of $60,000 and concluded at the Sharjah Cultural & Chess Club on Thursday.

Erigaisi emerged a winner after winning his final-round game against GM Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan.

The eighth seed from India, placed seventh among eight leaders after the penultimate round, bagged the top honours following a 27-move victory over Uzbek on the third board for a winning tally of 6.5 points from nine rounds of play.

Erigaisi, a 44th Olympiad individual silver medalist, did not have the best start, as he scored only 3/5 in the first five rounds.

Leaving the worst start behind, the Indian GM scored 3.5/4 in the last four games, including a hat-trick in the last three rounds.

His comeback started with victories over Hipolito Asis Gargatagli of Spain (2519), Shant Sargsyan of Armenia (2630), and then three victories over Russian players Sergie Azarov (2582), Vladislav Kovalev (2612), and Uzbek Yakubboev (2630).

“I was hoping to play well because I’d been having awful tournament luck lately everywhere else. Winning such a strong tournament feels good,” said the jubilant Erigaisi.

Earlier this year, he had a couple of forgettable outings at the 85th Tata Steel Masters and the 28th Tepe Sigeman.

With this win, he gained around nine points and moved ahead of his starting rating of 2701.

Seven players scored 6/9. D Gukesh was placed third according to tiebreaks. Nihal Sarin is the only other Indian to make a top ten finish. He scored 5.5/9 to finish ninth.

The Indian GM, Gukesh, had drawn with Iran’s Amin Tabatabaei.

Gukesh, with a rating of 2732 and one of the favorites to win, maintained his position at the top for the majority of his campaign.

His performance slipped after draws in the last three rounds against Tabatabaei (2677) and Samuel Sevian (2684) of the US, the eventual runner-up.

Sheikh Saud Bin Abdul Aziz Almualla, Chairman of the Sharjah Cultural & Chess Club; Dr Sheikh Khalid Bin Humaid Al Qasimi, Chairman of the Organising Committee of the event; Nabil Mohammed Ashour, Director of the Sports and Development Affairs Department at the Sharjah Sports Council; Sami Khader, Vice President of the Arab Chess Federation; Rajai Al Susi, Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab Federation; Issa Ataya, Chief Executive Officer of Alef Group, and heads of the Egypt, Sudan, Libya, and Djibouti federations were present during the presentation ceremony.

Besides the Masters’ section, the Sharjah Cultural & Chess Club also hosted the inaugural edition of the Future and the Challengers events.

Egyptian Grandmaster Adham Fawzi won the third edition of the Challenge Championship.

Al Ain Chess and Cultural club’s rising star, Ali Hamdan Al-Sharifi, won the Future Championship.

The Sharjah Masters International Chess Championship was sponsored by Alef Group, Fast Building Contracting Company, National Paints Company, and Sharjah Cooperative Society.