Arjun offers up a pawn, which Aronian can absolutely take if he wishes. But the pawn can then be won back quite quickly, so it's not a gambit in the true sense of the word.
The QGD
Aronian declines the gambit, entering Queen's Gambit Declined territory, or QGD for short.
This move order is practically unheard of, with very few grandmaster games following along this path. Let's see if Arjun is ready to meet this one, or if he'll sink into thought here and now.
Arjun wastes little time continuing, suggesting that he's familiar with this offbeat line.
Aronian supports his central pawn by bringing out his kingside knight.
Arjun continues to leave the pawn hanging
He seems to be almost coaxing Aronian into grabbing it, as he leaves it undefended and prepares to perhaps push in the center.
Aronian snatches it!
He goes for it, picking up the pawn at the cost of losing control over the center.
Arjun builds an ideal center
This is Arjun's idea, to leave Aronian with a pawn for now, but in exchange to build up a perfect central pawn formation with the king and queen's pawn side by side.
Aronian shows the idea behind his variation, which is that the knight can come out to this square quickly, defending the extra pawn.
Arjun wants to push forward, hitting the knight and then setting up bishop takes pawn on the next move.
Aronian shuts that down.
Patient play
Arjun is aware that it's not going to be trivial for him to win his pawn back, but he continues to be fine to play with a minimal material deficit as his central control more than offsets this.
The result of the pawns having been pushed on the queenside is that Aronian has gained a strong outpost, which he immediately uses for his bishop.
Both sides finish castling, bringing their kings to safety.
Arjun finishes his minor piece development
He's got great piece harmony, and more space due to his strong center. I think that he will be quite happy with the position he's obtained, and if he is somehow able to win back his pawn while keeping his strong center then he will be in excellent shape to try to play this one for a win.
Comfortable for Arjun
He's now got a good opportunity to reclaim his pawn, by bringing his knight in via the central square. Looks like a slight but very safe advantage for the Indian grandmaster, as he will soon level up material while keeping the better grip over the center.
Arjun jumps in, preparing to win back his missing pawn.
He's anticipating that after knight takes pawn, he's going to be able to push his central pawn at the end of the sequence. He'll need to do that, in order to try and undermine Arjun's strong center.
The reason the queen sits well on this square is that it will support the eventual pawn break in the center (green arrow).
After some thought, Arjun decides he has nothing better than to go in for the mentioned sequence. He'll get his pawn back, but Aronian will be able to get his desired central pawn break in exchange.
Aronian is happy to trade down material, something that generally favors the side with less space.
Arjun recovers his missing piece.
He could not afford to sit and wait. The pawn break allows him to disrupt Arjun's control over the central squares.
Arjun strengthens his center
He recognizes that his king's pawn is going to come under a lot of pressure after a pawn trade in the center, so he lends it support. Plus, he also kills off possible knight jumps that Aronian may have considered.
Aronian is happy to get an opportunity to trade pawns, reducing Arjun's advantage in the center to something very manageable.
Arjun takes back, and now has a well-placed bishop that pressures Aronian's kingside knight.
Aronian continues to impress in how he's been handling the opening phase of the game. He's making use of the fact that Arjun's bishop is hanging, and that if bishop takes bishop gets played, his queen will then be defending his kingside knight.
Arjun keeps the position complicated
He drops his bishop back, a move that is not so much about its objective strength as it is about keeping as many pieces on the board as possible. It's clear that he wants to keep winning chances alive for as long as he can, which makes sense since his strong central pawn does offer him a small but enduring edge.
It's been really impressive to see how Aronian has been navigating this tricky middlegame. He offers Arjun the option to play bishop takes knight, damaging his structure. But what he has realized is that gaining the bishop pair will offset any damage to his pawn chain.
Arjun goes for it anyway, giving up his strong bishop in order to damage Aronian's structure. But now he's going to have to be careful over his dark squares, with his king in particular feeling very vulnerable to an attack along the open diagonal.
Aronian takes back, and is likely going to be quite happy here. He even has some chances to win from here if Arjun isn't careful. Not to say he stands better, but rather that it's now become a 3-result game. That's a risk Arjun is clearly willing to take, but the Indian grandmaster is going to have to be careful as a loss from the White side typically spells doom in this mini-match format.
Arjun prepares a pawn break
He's likely thinking about pushing his central pawn forward at the right moment, opening up the vision of his queen and bishop against Aronian's weakened kingside.
Aronian sets a sneaky trap
With his queen pressuring Arjun's queenside knight, there is now a clever tactical shot on the horizon. Given one more move, he would bring his bishop forward to distract Arjun's queen from guarding his own light-squared piece in the center.
Arjun follows through
This was the point behind his previous pawn move, as he now activates the pressure along the diagonal and threatens to pick up Aronian's right-hand pawn.
Aronian gives up his kingside pawn
He's banking on winning a pawn back in the center, since soon he will have a check against Arjun's exposed king.
Arjun picks up the pawn with check, opening up Aronian's king in the process. But it's not overly dangerous for Levon, as Arjun has king safety questions of his own to answer. This makes it difficult for him to be able to continue his attack.
Aronian sidesteps the check.
Arjun looks to trade off Aronian's bishop pair
Not only is that a dangerous asset for Levon to keep on the board, but it also makes it difficult for Arjun to attack as it covers invasion squares by Arjun's rook.
He went into the tank for half an hour, and seems to not have been convinced by some of the more direct options available to him like bishop takes knight. Instead, he's looking to rustle up an attack of his own along the semi-open file.
Arjun gets rid of the bishops, which will set up the possibility for him to pick up a pawn in the center of the board.
The idea that Arjun could well have in mind here is to take the pawn and open up the scope of his rook. That will leave Aronian down a pawn without a clear path to recovering it, since taking it would lead to the loss of his last kingside pawn.
Arjun decides not to rush winning the pawn, instead pinning it while bringing his last piece into the game.
Aronian forces the trade
He breaks the pin while also hitting Arjun's queen, effectively forcing the queens to come off the board.
Arjun could have pushed his pawn forward to avoid the trade, but that would have allowed Aronian to keep his central pawn.
We could be headed for a draw
Looks like Aronian has calculated things well here, and if Arjun now takes the pawn then the plan will be to bring the rook down and on to the seventh rank. This will make it very hard for him to avoid a draw by repetition in at least one of the key lines.
The counterplay that Aronian is banking on involves bringing his rook down, hitting both the pawn in front of Arjun's king as well as the one on the left hand side. Arjun can meet the threat by lifting his rook forward, but that could lead to a fast repetition due to checks along the back rank.
Arjun grabs the pawn, allowing Aronian to now come down with his rook onto the seventh rank (Arjun's second).
He goes for the immediate trade of bishop for knight, but this leads to an endgame that might be a little tricky for him to hold with little time on the clock.
Aronian moves in with his rook, targeting the pawn in front of Arjun's king.
Arjun pushes his pawn forward
Lifting his rook up instead would not do, since then Aronian could have given a check along his back rank and then returned the rook to its current square. That line would have led only to a draw.
Aronian hits the right-hand pawn
He wants to invite Arjun to push it forward, in order to leave the pawn to its left a bit more vulnerable. But this is a risky strategy, as Arjun is generally going to be happy to start rolling his kingside pawns forward.
Arjun pushes forward, guarding against the threat.
Aronian sets his sights on Arjun's weakest queenside pawn.
Aronian snaps up the weak pawn, and is also looking to grab the one in front of Arjun's king.
Arjun gives a check, forcing Aronian's king towards the left-hand file in order to gain time.
This is Arjun's idea. Now he gives a check, allowing him to defend his pawn with gain of time.
Aronian makes the right decision with his king, guarding against the dangerous passed pawn that Arjun has on the right-hand file.
Arjun lifts his rook up in time, before Aronian had the chance to double his own rooks along the seventh rank (or Arjun's second).
Aronian instead goes for a doubling of rooks on the sixth rank, pressuring the pawn in front of Arjun's king once more.
Aronian's handling of this delicate endgame has been absolutely world class. At the critical junctures, he's managed to find all the strong (and far from obvious) moves. This forces Arjun's rook to retreat to an awkward square.
One last precise move, and with this it feels to me like Aronian is on the cusp of securing the draw. Arjun is about to lose his extra pawn, while his piece coordination makes it really difficult for him to make use of his 3 vs 1 pawn majority on the kingside.
Forced
Aronian needed to drop the rook back in order to guard the threat along the seventh rank.
Only one move will do
Arjun is doing an excellent job in posing practical problems, as he forces Aronian to continue finding only moves in order to hold the balance. The check here is necessary, to create a bit of a net around Arjun's king.
But unfortunately for Arjun and his fans, Levon has been able to rise to the challenge on each occasion. He's now coordinating very well with his rooks, against Arjun's exposed king.
Arjun can force a perpetual check at any moment, but that's exactly what Aronian is looking for.
Both players can settle in for a bit of a longer think if needed here, since they now receive an extra 30 minutes on the clock. But the result seems to be almost assured by now, as neither side can find better than perpetual check and a draw by repetition.
Arjun came into today's game with a clear intention of trying to squeeze Levon Aronian from the White side.
And to be fair, he managed to obtain exactly the kind of position that seemed to offer a risk-free chance to fight for an edge.
But the problem for him was that, today at least, Levon Aronian was absolutely in-form from beginning to end.
In the early opening, Arjun was able to secure a strong pawn center, something that forced Aronian to find very precise moves in order to defuse the danger. But that he did, as he found a clever queen maneuver on move 11, followed by a key pawn break on move 13.
But Arjun wasn't done, as he shifted gears and found a way to launch an offensive against Aronian's king. Here again, he forced Levon to find precise moves to take away the pressure. And even when he did so, the resulting endgame was still devilishly tricky for the American grandmaster.
But even though pin-point precision was needed on a handful of occasions, that did not seem to be a hill too steep to climb for Levon. He played one perfect move after another, and in the end Arjun was forced to admit that there was nothing more to play for, with a quick repetition of moves ending the game just after move 40.
We'll be back tomorrow, for more coverage of this closely contested match! See you then.
A big clash awaits!
Arjun Erigaisi, world number 5, is the highest rated player remaining at the FIDE World Cup, and the last man standing of the trio of Indian superstars.
With World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju posting an early exit, and Praggnanandhaa falling to Daniil Dubov in yesterday's tiebreaks, Arjun represents India's best chance at a gold medal in the 2025 edition of what is one of the most prestigious tournaments in chess.
But the going gets tougher for him today, as he prepares to face Levon Aronian. The Armenian-born American grandmaster has been showing strong chess at this event, continuing the good form that he has carried through most of 2025.
Today, Arjun is likely to be feeling the pressure of the White pieces. That to me always feels like a slight disadvantage, as a draw leaves one under pressure with Black in game 2, while a loss is nothing short of disastrous. Let's see how ambitious he is in his approach!