All posts tagged: Arjun Erigaisi chess

Arjun Erigaisi interview: ‘Not making it to the Candidates is not the end of the world’ | Chess News

Arjun Erigaisi interview: ‘Not making it to the Candidates is not the end of the world’ | Chess News

Published by Webster

It’s been a month since Arjun Erigaisi was handed probably the harshest loss of his career: a defeat to Wei Yi in the FIDE World Cup quarter-finals, which meant that the 22-year-old will miss out on his second consecutive Candidates tournament. For Erigaisi, it was the sixth close miss over two World Championship cycles via three different pathways. Even now, with a month having gone by, you can sense the disappointment in his voice when he talks about the feeling of being within touching distance of a Candidates spot that has become a barometer for success for India’s golden generation of prodigies. After all, over the last two World Championship cycles, Gukesh has won the Candidates and then gone on to become the world champion, while Praggnanandhaa will be heading to Cyprus in March-April for his second Candidates in a row. “Missing out on the Candidates was obviously very tough,” Erigaisi tells The Indian Express in an interview. “But I knew that the world doesn’t end here. There’s so many years (ahead of me). My …

‘Fun tournament’ Arjun Erigaisi wins 43 lakhs for fifth position at Paris Freestyle Grand Slam Tour

‘Fun tournament’ Arjun Erigaisi wins 43 lakhs for fifth position at Paris Freestyle Grand Slam Tour

Published by Parlour News

Arjun Erigaisi pocketed a cool $50,000 (approximately Rs 43 lakh) after ending fifth at the Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour on Monday. Arjun defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the playoff for the fifth spot after defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the previous classification game. Arjun had lost to Hikaru Nakamura in the quarter-finals. Nakamura lost in the final on Monday to world no 1 Magnus Carlsen, who took home $200,000 (approximately Rs 1.7 crore) for finishing on top in Paris. Arjun was the best finisher among the four Indians in action in the 12-player field. The others were Arjun’s teammates from the Chess Olympiad gold medal winning Indian team: Praggnanandhaa (who ended 9th), world champion Gukesh and Vidit Gujrathi (both of whom shared last spot in the event). “This is one of the most fun tournaments I have had in the last few years,” Arjun told Chessbase India after his win over Vachier-Lagrave. Story continues below this ad When asked why that was, he said: “No pressure. It was very easy to play.” …

Nihal Sarin, Aravindh Chithambaram to compete for India’s S8UL

Nihal Sarin, Aravindh Chithambaram to compete for India’s S8UL

Published by Webster

Nihal Sarin and Aravindh Chithambaram will compete for India’s S8UL in chess at the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2025, the franchise announced late on Sunday night. Online chess will be introduced for the first time at the upcoming Esports World Cup this year when it will be held at Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh from July 7 to August 24. Aravindh Chithambaram is currently ranked 4th in India and 11th in the world, with a FIDE rating of 2749. Nihal Sarin is currently ranked 8th in India and 40th in the world, with a FIDE rating of 2687. Before Nihal and Aravindh, Arjun Erigaisi was named on the roster of Gen.G, thus becoming the first Indian to be named in an esports team’s roster. There are plenty of big names who have already signed up for esports outfits. Team Liquid has snapped up stars like former world champion Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana while Team Falcons will have five-time Speed Chess champion Hikaru Nakamura and rising star Alireza Firouzja in its squad. Ian Nepomniachtchi will play for …

Arjun Erigaisi holds Hikaru Nakamura to thrilling draw under time pressure at Freestyle Chess Grand Slam | Chess News

Arjun Erigaisi holds Hikaru Nakamura to thrilling draw under time pressure at Freestyle Chess Grand Slam | Chess News

Published by Webster

When Arjun Erigaisi qualified for the quarter-finals of the Paris leg of the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour on Tuesday by finishing fourth in the leaderboard after 11 round-robin rapid games, it soon became certain that the player no one likes to face will be paired with him after he finished fourth. Finishing in the top half comes with its own set of benefits in this tournament. The top half gets to choose their opponents which they like to face in the quarters with one more added benefit of deciding the colour they would like to start with. But fourth place meant Arjun had to wait for the other three above him to first make their choice. After Ian Nepomniachtchi went with an audacious choice by picking Weissenhaus leg winner Vincent Keymer, Magnus Carlsen picked Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Maxime Vachier Lagrave chose Fabiano Caruana, Arjun was left with no choice but to play Nakamura. Arjun chose to play White against the World No.2, the only player other than Carlsen to have a live rating above 2800 …

Nihal Sarin wins Tashkent Open, pockets ,000 prize money | Chess News

Nihal Sarin wins Tashkent Open, pockets $20,000 prize money | Chess News

Published by Webster

Long considered a player who is more adept at faster time controls than classical chess, India’s Nihal Sarin won the classical Tashkent Open Agzamov Memorial 2025 with a draw with black pieces against Uzbekistan’s Shamsiddin Vokhidov in the final round on Saturday. Thanks to the victory, Nihal will return from Uzbekistan’s capital with a cool $20,000 (approx Rs 17 lakh) in his pocket and 7.1 rating points in his credit. The 20-year-old from Thrissur is rated 2694 in the live ratings, which takes him within touching distance of the 2700-rating peak after his performance in Tashkent. A member of India’s golden generation of teenage prodigies, in recent years, Nihal has been falling behind contemporaries like Gukesh, who became the youngest world champion in the history of the sport, and players like Arjun Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa, at least in the classical format. Nihal was a prominent absentee in India’s all-star Chess Olympiad that returned from Budapest last year after winning the team gold, besides twin individual golds for Gukesh and Arjun. “I was not hurt at …

Arjun Erigaisi joins Gen.G for Esports World Cup in wild announcement

Arjun Erigaisi joins Gen.G for Esports World Cup in wild announcement

Published by Webster

Arjun Erigaisi is riding a bull. Then, he’s feeding an eagle. Then he’s in karate gear. Then, he throws mock punches at world champion Gukesh. Then he’s riding an ATV, confronting a bear, surfing, wrestling on the chess board, flying a helicopter, floats in space as an astronaut, dances, does sky diving, and does gymnastics. Esports team Gen.G announced their signing of Arjun Erigaisi for the upcoming Esports World Cup with an unconventional, AI-generated announcement video. “Life’s too short to make bad moves… so we made a great one. Ranked #4 in the World, he’s the most interesting Chess player alive,” Gen.G announced. Story continues below this ad The team later said: “”Welcome Arjun Erigaisi to Gen.G! Arjun will compete in the Champions Chess Tour to qualify for Esports World Cup!” Watch Arjun Erigaisi’s announcement video Life’s too short to make bad moves… so we made a great one ♟️ Ranked #4 in the World, he’s the most interesting Chess player alive. Welcome @ArjunErigaisi to Gen.G! pic.twitter.com/TYXSTFkhIG — Gen.G Esports (@GenG) February 5, 2025 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js …

Arjun Erigaisi trails leader Fabiano Caruana by six points with final event left

Arjun Erigaisi trails leader Fabiano Caruana by six points with final event left

Published by Webster

In a few days, the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz chess tournament will be held in New York’s Wall Street. The event will not just decide the world champions in rapid and blitz format. It will also end up deciding which player gets the FIDE Circuit spot for the prestigious Candidates tournament. The path to Candidates tournament has one spot designated to the 2024 FIDE Circuit. There are two players in the race to win the spot: India’s Arjun Erigaisi and Fabiano Caruana. The American GM leads Arjun Erigaisi by a mere six points with the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz chess tournament being the final tournament of 2024 to award Circuit points. Caruana raced to the lead in the 2024 FIDE Circuit race after emerging victorious at the Saint Louis Masters. The win helped him get 16.39 points which helped him leapfrog over Arjun Erigaisi on the leaderboard. Arjun Erigaisi ended second at the Qatar Masters Open 2024. With both having completed seven tournaments counted towards the 2024 FIDE Circuit final standings, Fabiano Caruana …

Arjun Erigaisi’s mother reveals tales from his childhood: Was 3 when a teacher said he’d do well in chess; was calmed by the sport | Chess News

Published by Webster

Arjun Erigaisi was around three years old when his pre-kindergarten teacher first advised his parents that chess would be a good fit for him. The story goes that the young Arjun could recite multiplication tables in reverse and remembered the capitals of around 70 countries along with their currencies. It was only four years later — at the age of seven — when Arjun was finally introduced to the sport in which he’s currently the world’s fourth ranked player. “This incident was back when we were living in Tirupathi. That teacher, Vidhya ma’am, told us that he has great grasping power and he can play chess really well. But in those days there were not too many options to learn chess in Tirupathi,” Arjun’s mother Jyothi tells The Indian Express a few hours after her son has confirmed his individual gold medal on the third board at the Chess Olympiad which also helped the Indian team win a gold medal in the open section and the overall gold. We are the Champions 🥇🇮🇳🥇 https://t.co/pvA72ioyUB — …

India Secure Historic Gold Medal at 2024 Chess Olympiad

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India claimed its first-ever gold medal in the open section of the Chess Olympiad 2024. The victorious Indian team comprised of talented players D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna, and team coach Srinath Narayanan. India’s historic win was sealed after Arjun Erigaisi and D Gukesh clinched crucial victories in their respective matches, while second-placed China dropped points against the USA. This result allowed India to surge ahead and secure the top position. INDIA WINS GOLD IN OPEN CATEGORY 🥇💥🇮🇳 Arjun wins his game to put India 1-0 up in the Round 11 match vs Slovenia. With this, China will be unable to catch India ♟️🙌 𝑰𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚!!!! 🫶#Chess #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/McHU4Bc6Bv — The Bridge (@the_bridge_in) September 22, 2024 The Indian team started the tournament in excellent form, winning their first eight ties before being held to a draw by the defending champions, Uzbekistan. However, they quickly bounced back, defeating the USA in the penultimate round, which effectively ensured their gold medal finish. This victory improves upon India’s previous best …