Arjun Erigaisi spills the beans on shedding India No. 1 spot to D Gukesh: ‘One of many hardest tournaments of my life’
Feb 14, 2025 07:27 AM IST
Arjun Erigaisi is the present India No. 2, behind reigning world champion D Gukesh.
Arjun Erigaisi had a topsy-turvy marketing campaign on the recently-concluded Tata Chess Masters, and it additionally noticed him lose his India No. 1 spot to reigning world champion D Gukesh. Erigaisi’s match began off on a really shaky notice, the place he was failing to even bag a win as he crashed to 4 defeats within the first seven rounds. Then he managed to place in a late resurgence with 4 consecutive attracts earlier than defeating Nodirbek Abdusattarov and Gukesh within the last two video games, which had a huge effect on the standings.
Initially, the Uzbek GM and Gukesh had been heading in the right direction to win the trophy, however then later outcomes noticed Nodirbek fall out of rivalry as R Praggnanandhaa staged a late comeback to stage proceedings with Gukesh on the standings. The title was determined within the tie-breaker spherical and Praggnanandhaa reigned supreme.
Talking to Indian Specific, Arjun mentioned, “It was one of many hardest tournaments of my life to date. There’s at all times studying to be taken away from tournaments. Particularly in such tournaments like there are various (learnings to be taken away). However the ones that I can reveal is that I used to be taking part in a bit too aggressively and taking an excessive amount of dangers.”
“Truly this I spotted like mid-event, like through the match itself. So within the second half of the match, I used to be making an attempt to play extra solidly and, since then, it went higher.”
He additionally revealed his plans for this 12 months and remarked that he can be competing on the Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam occasion. “I might be competing within the Paris version of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour later this 12 months,” reveals Erigaisi earlier than including: “I can even be taking part in at Norway Chess this tear. I’ll in fact play the Grand Swiss and FIDE World Cup to attempt to qualify for the Candidates match. Other than that, I don’t have an thought the place I’ll play. However I feel it will likely be the standard World Fast Blitz and possibly World Fast Blitz Group occasions this 12 months,” he added.
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