Arjun Erigaisi loses to Nikolas Theodorou in Sharjah Masters chess

Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi was stunned by Nikolas Theodorou of Greece in the second round of Sharjah Masters chess tournament in Sharjah.

Erigaisi, however, bounced back to register a victory over Nikolzi Kacherava of Switzerland in the third round that puts back his status as world number eight in live ratings.

It was not an easy day for the Indian contingent. Aravindh Chithambaram was the pick of the lot as he carved out an exceptional victory with white pieces.

The two-time national champion, who is based in Chennai, got the better of Muradli Mahammad of Azerbaijan to be the only Indian in the leading group.

Important and Indian results after Round 2:

Nikolas Theodorou (GRE, 2) beat Arjun Erigaisi (1); Vasly Ivanchuk (UKR, 1) lost to Arjun Tabatabaei (IRI, 2);  Temur Kuybokarov (AUS) lost to Vladimir Fedoseev (2); Hans Moke Niemann (USA, 2) Jahongir Vakhidov  (IZB, 1); Muradli Mahammad (AZE, 1) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram  (2);  Marcin Krzyzanowski (POL, 2) beat Abhimanyu Mishra (USA, 1); Volodar Murzin (FID, 2) beat P Iniyan (1); Salem A R Saleh (UAE, 2) beat Shreyas Royal (ENG, 1); Parham Maghsoodloo, Parham (IRI, 1.5) beat S P Sethuraman; Denis Kadric (MNE, 1) drew with S L Narayanan (1); Nihal Sarin (1) drew with Mikheil Mchedlishvili (GEO, 1);  B Adhiban (1) drew with Raunak Sadhwani (1); Shant Sargsyan (ATM, 0.5) lost to Sankalp Gupta (1.5); David Gavrilescu (ROU. 0.5) lost to Abhimanyu Puranik (1.5);  Maurizzi Marcandria (FRA, 1) drew with  D Harika (1); BIbisara Assaubayeva (KAZ, 0.5) lost to Aditya Mittal (1.5); Madaminov Mukhiddin (UZB, 1) drew with Abhijeet Gupta (1); Deac Bogdan-Daniel (ROU, 1) beat Bharath, Subramaniyam (0)); Yilmaz Mustafa (TUR, 0.5) drew with Pranav Anand (0.5); Raja Rithvik (0.5) drew with Leon Luke Menodonca (0.5); Eltaj Safarl (AZE, 1) beat Aditya Samant (0); V Pranav beat Alsiher Suleymenov (UZB).