The Spanish Balearic island of Menorca hosted a chess festival with two open classical tournaments and a blitz event on April 2-7. Nine rounds were played in the open tournaments over five days, with double rounds on three days with starting times at 10 am and 5 pm.

The A-Open was outstanding in terms of quantity and quality. A total of 44 grandmasters participated, including many well-known names. India’s Arjun Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin topped the starting rank, as no fewer than 33 players from India took part in the battle for Elo points and prize money. In addition to Arjun and Nihal, Aravindh, Karthik, Pranav V., Aryan, Adhiban, Raja, Pranav V. and Praaneth from India also made their way to Spain. Indian IM Divya Deshmuk was one of the best female participants in the field.

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Halfway through the tournament, after five rounds, six players — Aryan Chopra and Nihal Sarin (India), Kirill Alekseenko (Austria), Daniel Dardha (Belgium), Max Warmerdam (Netherlands) and Jan Klimkowski (Poland) — were sharing the lead with 4½ points each. Rating favourite Arjun Erigaisi belonged to the chasing group with 4 points.

After the sixth round, the field of leaders was reduced to two players, Aryan Chopra and Daniel Dardha, both on 5½ points. A draw on the top board in round 7, the leading group expanded again to four players, including Arjun. In round eight, Arjun defeated Aryan Chopra to take the sole lead with 7 points to his name.

In the last round, a draw against Vladimir Fedoseev was enough for Arjun to win the tournament thanks to his good tiebreak score. Kirill Alexeenko and Maksim Chigaev, who used to play for Russia and now play for Austria and Spain, scored as many points as Arjun. With this result, Arjun climbed to seventh place in the live ratings list and is now the highest-rated Indian representative — ahead of Vishy Anand and Gukesh D.

German IM Roven Vogel finished in an excellent seventh place with 7 points. The only defeat of the player from Dresden came against Arjun in round 4. Vogel finished the event with three victories in as many rounds. In round 5, Vogel defeated the Argentinian wonder boy Faustino Oro, the “Messi of chess”.

Final standings

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Rg.	Snr		Name	Elo	Pkt.	Wtg1	Wtg2	Wtg3
1	1	GM	Erigaisi, Arjun	IND	2756	7,5	52,5	48,5	38
	7	GM	Alekseenko, Kirill	AUT	2655	7,5	52,5	47,5	38
	14	GM	Chigaev, Maksim	ESP	2621	7,5	49	45	37,5
4	3	GM	Fedoseev, Vladimir	SLO	2690	7	51,5	47,5	35
	12	GM	Aryan, Chopra	IND	2630	7	51	47	38
	16	GM	Yuffa, Daniil	ESP	2607	7	50,5	46	35
	33	IM	Vogel, Roven	GER	2528	7	49	45	33,5
8	13	GM	Dardha, Daniel	BEL	2630	6,5	56	52	38,5
	5	GM	Van Foreest, Jorden	NED	2668	6,5	52	48	34,5
	38	GM	Krzyzanowski, Marcin	POL	2510	6,5	51,5	48,5	35,5
	47	IM	Szpar, Milosz	POL	2495	6,5	51,5	47	33
	19	GM	Idani, Pouya	IRI	2602	6,5	51,5	45	35,5
	60	IM	Castellanos Rodriguez, Renier	ESP	2467	6,5	51	46,5	32,5
	24	GM	Sosa, Tomas	ARG	2562	6,5	50,5	47,5	34,5
	10	GM	Warmerdam, Max	NED	2633	6,5	50,5	47	37,5
	6	GM	Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2662	6,5	50	45,5	34,5
	11	GM	Murzin, Volodar	FID	2632	6,5	49,5	45,5	33,5
	22	GM	Sanal, Vahap	TUR	2565	6,5	47,5	44	31,5
	28	GM	Gorshtein, Ido	ISR	2540	6,5	47,5	43,5	34
	17	GM	Albornoz Cabrera, Carlos Daniel	CUB	2604	6,5	47,5	43,5	34
	64	GM	Zhu, Jiner	CHN	2463	6,5	46,5	43,5	33
22	37	IM	Iermito, Sebastian	ITA	2511	6	53	49	34,5
	39	IM	Klimkowski, Jan	POL	2505	6	52	48	36,5
	65	IM	Agmanov, Zhandos	KAZ	2458	6	50	46,5	32,5
	35	GM	Pranav, Anand	IND	2519	6	50	46	34

...284 players

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Topics: Arjun Erigaisi, Menorca Open 2024

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