Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian won the blitz category of the Tata Steel Chess India defeating Arjun Erigaisi via Armageddon at the National Library on Sunday.

Armageddon is a variant of blitz chess where black wins drawn games. This guarantees the game ends decisively, which makes it as a final tie-breaker.

On Sunday, Erigaisi won the toss and chose the black pieces. This meant that he would have a minute less but the draw odds. Aronian would have five minutes for the entire game while Erigaisi had four but a draw would see the latter winning the championship.

Aronian blitzed out the opening and was clearly better after the opening. Erigaisi tried to equalise in the middlegame but was never close to neutralizing Aronian’s opening advantage.

Aronian’s space advantage was immense, forcing Erigaisi to give up a knight for a few pawns and some counterplay. The Armenian welcome the material advantage, consolidated his position and looked all set for victory.

Erigaisi went for counterplay while ignoring the safety of his monarch. Aronian sniffed a chance and went for the kill with Qd7 on move 38. This move threatened both checkmate and a rook on c8.

A helpless Erigaisi, who had won the rapid section on Friday, stretched out his hand in resignation.

Earlier, there was drama in the last round. Nihal Sarin, who was leading till the 17th round, suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Parham Maghsoodloo and Aronian and Erigaisi made the most of it winning their respective matches. While Erigaisi accounted for Le Quang Liem of Vietnam, Aronian defeated Harika Dronavalli to emerge as joint leaders.

In the ensuing tie-breaker, Aronian took extra risks with the white pieces.