Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi stormed into the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Cup, defeating two-time winner Levon Aronian of the United States in the second game of the round of 16, in Panaji on Saturday.
Arjun was in control throughout, and the fact that his victory came with black pieces speaks volumes about the resilience of the Indian to adapt to different situations in quick time.
Having drawn the first game under classical time control against someone who has been showing peak form recently, Arjun was simply at his best with black pieces, getting the position to his liking.
As far as the opening went, the Indian made it clear that the first drawn game with the slightly favourablecolour had little impact on him.
The Italian opening has been under the scrutiny here in the World Cup, and Saturday was no exception.
The middle game featured a routine pawn structure but Arjun was the first to break through in the centre as he got an uneven pawn structure with his knights on the prowl to cause some king side damage.
Aronian, generally a cool customer and until recently in fine form, lost his composure for the first time in the event as he found himself saddled with a difficult position to defend.
As normally in the case in such situations, the Armenian turned American ran out of ideas and his 28th move was a testament to the fact.
Arjun's next move, a pleasing-to-the-eye knight sacrifice proved to be the final nail as the Indian is now three wins away from annexing the World Cup.
On a day when Grandmaster P Harikrishna played out his second draw on the trot with Jose Eduardo Matinez Alcantara of Mexico, NodirbekYakubboev of Uzbekistan cemented his place in the last eight at the expense of Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia.
Harikrishna will have to come back for the tiebreaker reserved on Sunday to see his fate in the USD 2 million event that also has top three places reserved for the next Candidates tournament.
In other games to end early, Sam Shankland of the United States drew with Daniil Dubov of Russia to go to the tiebreaker while the all-Russian duel between Andrey Esipenko and Aleksey Grebnev also will be decided in the shorter format on Sunday.
The day would not have completed with a few victories and ending on the winning side was Wei Yi of China, who crashed through the defences of Sevian Samuel of the United States.
Germany's Alexander Donchenko was held to a draw by Liem Le Quang of Vietnam.
Round 5 Game 1 results:
Javokhir Sindarov (UZB) beat Frederic Svane (GER) 1.5-0.5 goes to tiebreak; Levon Aronian (USA) lost to Arjun Erigaisi (IND); Sam Shankland (USA) drew with Daniil Dubov (FID) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Alexander Donchenko (GER) drew with Liem Le Quang (VIE) 1-1 goes to tie-break; Gabriel Sargissian (ARM) lost to Nodirbek Yakubboev (UZB) 0.5-1.5; Andrey Esipenko (FID) drew with Aleksey Grebnev (FID) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Sevian Samuel (USA) lost to Wei Yi (CHN) 0.5-1.5; Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara (MEX) drew with P Harikrishna (IND) 1-1 goes to tiebreak.