Erigaisi cashes in on Aronian slip-up to enter quarter-finals of World Cup

A fleeting glance from across the chess board and the seasoned Levon Aronian offered a draw. It put Arjun Erigaisi in a dilemma.

- Shahid Judge

India's Arjun Erigaisi at the FIDE World Cup in Goa on Saturday.

(MICHAL WALUSZA/FIDE)

If the draw was accepted, it would take their fifth-round tie in the Chess World Cup in Goa into Sunday's tiebreakers. Erigaisi, the tournament second seed and India No.1, sat calmly, calculating. However, for a player who simply does not play defensive chess, the draw offer from Aronian made one thing clear.

"At some point I wasn't sure if I was on the better side or worse side of equality, but when he offered a draw, that gave me some confidence that he's happy with a draw. That gave me some edge," Erigaisi said in comments to FIDE shortly after becoming the first Indian to enter the quarterfinals in this edition.

Pentala Harikrishna, the only other Indian player still in contention, played out a second consecutive draw in classical against Mexican GM Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara. Harikrishna played with white pieces, but the duo played a rather accurate game before agreeing a draw in 35 moves. It goes into Sunday's tiebreaks.