Arjun Erigasi on Monday pacified $ 50,000 (about 43 lakh rupees) after finishing fifth in Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. Arjun defeated Maxim Western-Lagrav in the playoffs for the fifth place after defeating Ian Napomnochati in the previous classification game. Arjun lost to Hikaru Nakamura in the quarter -finals. Nakamura lost to the world number 1 Magnus Carlsen in the final on Monday, who took a $ 200,000 (about Rs 1.7 crore) home to finish at Paris.
Arjun was the best finisher in action among four Indians in the 12-Khiladi region. Other people were Ajun’s companions from the Chess Olympiad Gold Medal, who wins the Indian team: Pragnanandha (who was ranked 9th), world champions Gukesh and Vidit Gujrathi (both shared the last place in the event).
“This is one of the funniest tournaments of me in the last few years,” Arjun told Chasebase India after his victory over the Vacier-Lagrav.
Read more A trick that made a jaw drop: How Arjun Erigasi offered Ian Napomonachati and defeated the bright queen sacrifice
Asked why it was, he said: “No pressure. Playing was very easy.”
Like Carlson, Arjun will now be the head of Granny to compete at another freestyle event from Friday. Grenne’s event will be an open tournament where players will play two classical games per day.
While Ian Napomonachchi was among those who were made to play classification matches for 5th to 8th place in the freestyle chess incident after losing one place in the semi -finals, Arjun was happy to meet some games.
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Arjun told the official broadcaster of the event after beating his French opponent, “It was disappointing not to play for the first place, but it is a practice for other freestyle tournaments. So I’ll not call it disappointing.”
Arjun said, “It was disappointing to lose to Hikaru as I got a better position from the inauguration in both sports. After Napo losing the first game, I was not so optimistic.”
