If anyone can elections against some of the world’s best chess players in Indian freestyle format, it should be Arjun Erigasi. He was the only one from the country to qualify for the knockout round of Paris leg of the Grand Slam Tour. Among those who failed to move forward, R. Praggananandha, Classical World Champion D. Gukesh and Vidit Gujarathi were included.
Starting on Monday, when Arjun finished in only 29 tricks in World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen and the third highest-remedies in history-Fabiano Caruana-K and finished in 35 tricks in the first two rounds, ended on Tuesday, when he finished fourth in Standing after 11 horrific rounds of Rapid Classification Games.
Arjun, who won three winning on the second day, won two more with 6.5 points out of a potential 11 points behind Carlsen, Ian Napomnocchi and local favorite Maxim Wachier-Langrev.
When the day began, all this was about Gukesh’s redemption as it began on Pragnanandha two consecutive wins and his second, Vincent Kimar in the World Championship. He saw his second quarter-finals ready on this tour, but the three back-to-back necklaces dropped him out of the tournament.
Praggananandha had their own opportunities, but would they not convert them into victory.
Meanwhile, Vidit was a terrible outing. He lost nine out of 11 rounds, including seven consecutive necklaces with the final termination.
Arjun started the day in the top half and stayed there. With the reputation of a ‘crazy man’ on the board, who prefers to interrupt the nature of the game, he appeared to be the most favorable Indian player for this version.
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Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Arjun Erigasi Action of India during the day 2 of Paris leg. (LEart Uots/Freestyle Chess)
The work that Arjun is doing is his courageous approach – sometimes criticized to be very uncertain – because the nature of the freestyle chess allows him to stick to his style. With each new situation in a new game, which practically reduces the opening principle, Arjuna can very well maneuver to create a complicated position and stable imbalance, a sports position where he shines the most.
Arjun ahead of the tournament said, “I sometimes take additional risk and go out of my way to create interesting positions. In freestyle, those interesting situations naturally arise, even without me deliberately raising risks. Perhaps it suits me.”
Path less travel
Whereas Pragganandha placed the Grand Chess Tour and Champions Chess Tour in the tournament at the beginning of his career, the steady growth of Gukesh and the ability to step into high-day classical tournaments and placed him in the chess aristocratic class through a relatively straight passage in the chess aristocratic class at the beginning of his career.
Usually chose the last. breath. This is me vs @Arjunerigaisi Tomorrow. You all meet then !!
– Hikaru Nakamura (@GMHIKARU) April 8, 2025
Meanwhile, Arjun had to take the road less. His constant piece in open events was rating him, raising him upwards in the ranking, but the invitation for the Super Elite tournament still remained out of his reach.
It was only when he violated the 2800 rating mark – Vishwanathan became the second Indian after Anand and only the 16th player in history to do so – who forced the world of chess to take Warsaran Vandkind seriously.
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However, after Tata steel Masters 2025 Slamp-Arjun’s first major invitation tournament-where they lost 24 hard-Arjit rating points in just two weeks, it seemed as if he was not cut out for a elite level chess.
But Arjuna remained inspired and grinded. He spent most freestyle on Friday in preparation for his first presence. He won three consecutive freestyle Fridays, ensuring that he was a war-taiir.
Dynamic game
It is also worth noting their ability to switch rapidly between different time formats. He won three back-to-back freestyle Friday, an online 11-round Swiss format tournament, with 3+1 (3 min plus 1-second growth per move) Blitz Time Control. In the era of classification, they were given a rapid time control of 10+10 (10 min plus 10-second increase) and in the knockout round, they would have to play in classical time control of 90+30 (90 min plus 30-second).
Arjun is new to this version and is finding his way out in the format that he believes that the future of chess is. He said, “I went with full expectations in these tournaments (Freestyle Friday), because in addition to looking as a fan, I had very little freestyle experience till now,” he said.
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“I just wanted to practice something before the Paris Grand Slam. But I surprised myself by performing well in my first program in February, and this gave me more confidence and increased my expectations for later events. The absence of the initial phase helps me; My sports enter the middle game directly, where I do a little better navigattate than some of my opponents.”
Arjun will face Hikaru Nakamura in the quarter -finals.
