Being World No 3 or 2800 don’t matter that much
Earlier this month, Arjun Erigaisi stepped on Mount 2800, touching the elusive classical ratings barrier in chess that only 16 grandmasters have touched in history. At 21 years of age, Arjun Erigaisi is one of the youngest players to have achieved the feat which led everyone from five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing their delight at the young Indian prodigy scaling new heights. For Arjun Erigaisi, however, going past the 2800 rating points milestone was just an “added bonus” to winning the game for his club, Team Alkaloid, by defeating Dmitry Andreikin in the 5th round of the European Chess Club Cup. Arjun says that his mind was focussed on winning his battle with Andreikin and how that could sway the overall clash between the two clubs. “The satisfaction was there after winning. But that was because I won that game against a strong player, not because of reaching 2800. I did have an idea that if I won, I would cross 2800. But at that point, it wasn’t …
