Sargsyan Wins Tight Titled Arena
The March Lichess Blitz Titled Arena was won by GM Shant Sargsyan, a young Armenian superGM who is a former World U16 champion. In what was one of the closest Titled Arenas ever, Sargsyan was only really able to clinch the tournament in the final few minutes as he won two games back-to-back. Two other young and rising stars, GM Mahammad Muradli and Aravindh Chithambaram Veerappan, finished in second and third place, respectively. The anonymous GM BMWHero came in fourth while GM Vahap Sanal took fifth place.
Under 10 Arena points separated 1st place from 5th place. Thus, in the final few minutes, it was all a battle of nerves! Sargsyan had the best nerves as he amassed nine points out of his last four games, though he did get some cement to build his lead. Muradli, instead, only got seven points out of his last four games, while Veerappan got six, and BMWHero and Sanal only got three.
We will take a look at one spectacular game from each of the three podium finishers!
#1 - GM Shant Sargsyan
Early in the tournament, Sargsyan was paired with his compatriot, Haik Martirosyan, chess prodigy extraordinaire. What started out as a calm Kasparov Variation of the Queen's Indian Defense soon turned into Kasparovian mayhem as Martirosyan decided to castle queenside. However, Martirosyan would soon come to regret that decision; White's attack looked like it was going to crash through first, but looks can be deceiving! Check out how Sargsyan masterfully pushes his b-pawn and gets to set up a common checkmating pattern against Martirosyan. In this battle of sevens, seven sevens was better than six sevens.
https://lichess.org/WnAR1Vc2/black
#2 - GM Mahammad Muradli
If you're looking for an interesting and rather creative setup against White's double fianchetto setup, Muradli has you covered! In this game, Muradli simply aimed to lay siege to the d4 square, whereupon his strong center would grant him a lot of activity. Muradli proceeded to convert rather cleanly, adding pressure the backward pawn on d3 and eventually going up a pawn.
https://lichess.org/gjL9zVak/black
#3 - GM Aravindh Chithambaram Veerappan
The c5-d6-e5 setup does not always work against White's double fianchetto! To get third place, Veerappan relied heavily on 1. b3, and his expertise was truly on full display in this game. To be objective, he did allow the d5 push twice in the opening, but after IM Mousavi Seyed Khalil missed those opportunities, Veerappan took control of the center and skillfully made use of his double (bish)ops combo.
Puzzle Pack and the Next TA
Enjoy our Puzzle pack with puzzles from the event!
https://lichess.org/study/9q97uarB/T6uU4Ft8
The next Titled Arena is on March 19 and is a bullet tournament.
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