 "Arjun Erigaisi: How Chennai Grand Masters 2025 is perfect opportunity to boost his Classical chess reputation")
There’s no denying the fact that Arjun Erigaisi is part of India’s golden generation of young chess stars and is among the sport’s elite. An individual who is among the top five players in the world in the Classical format, after all, does deserve recognition.
And this also happens to be a player who had gone as high as No 3 in the ratings and was the top-ranked Indian for some time.
Arjun had a major role to play in India’s historic golden sweep in last year’s Chess Olympiad. He had also become only the second Indian after the legendary Viswanathan Anand to breach the 2800-rating barrier , also last year.
Let’s not forget the fact that he remains the second-highest Indian in the world rapid rankings, behind Anand himself, as well as the top-ranked Indian in the blitz ratings. The 21-year-old reaching the semi-finals of the Esports World Cup in Riyadh recently, along with Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Alireza Firouzja among its participants, serves as testament to that fact.
And when it comes to the unpredictable Freestyle Chess format, Arjun certainly is leading the way among the Indians, having finished a creditable fifth in Paris and reached the semi-finals in Las Vegas, with Gukesh has struggled to make an impact so far.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsWhere Arjun trails peers Gukesh and Pragg
Some however, might not rate Arjun on the same level as his peers – D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa – despite the fact that there isn’t much that separates the trio when it comes to their Classical ratings.
Gukesh and Pragg, after all, have key individual triumphs to boast of; Gukesh had made history by becoming the youngest world champion in chess history in December. Less than two months later, Praggnanandhaa would go on to win the prestigious Tata Steel Chess tournament.
Arjun, in comparison, hasn’t had the best of runs in Classical chess this year. Nearly three months after he won the WR Chess Masters Cup in London, an event that had Anand, Praggnanandhaa and Iranian-French GM Firouzja among its participants, Arjun would finish a disappointing 10th out of 14 participants in the Masters section of Tata Steel Chess.
His only notable achievement in that tournament was defeating Gukesh in the final round to deny him an outright victory right after being crowned world champion.
Fast forward to May, and Praggnanandhaa finished top of the standings at Superbet Chess Classic Romania in Bucharest, ahead of Gukesh, Firouzja, Fabiano Caruna and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
The following month, Gukesh would snap a six-month lean run and finally bounce back to form at Norway Chess, where he defeated Carlsen for the first time in his career and was on the verge of winning the prestigious event until he stuttered in the final stretch, allowing home favourite and world No 1 Carlsen to surge ahead and retain his title.
Arjun, meanwhile, had finished fifth out of six players in the ‘Open’ section despite defeating Gukesh earlier in the tournament.
Chennai Grand Masters a golden opportunity for Arjun
It is in this context that the third edition of Chennai Grand Masters , which was supposed to get underway on Wednesday but was postponed by a day due to a bizarre reason , holds great importance for Arjun.
The elite event is, after all, India’s strongest Classical tournament and boasts of the presence of leading names such as GM Anish Giri as well as Vincent Keymer and Vidit Gujrathi. And from Arjun’s perspective, coming into the tournament as a strong favourite and playing in front of home fans is the perfect opportunity for him to regain his groove in Standard chess, with some major events set to follow.
Major events such as the FIDE World Cup, which will be taking place in India in the months of October and November this year, in which the top three players secure qualification for next year’s Candidates tournament from where they get to challenge Gukesh for his world title. Let’s not forget the fact that CGM 2025 also carries valuable FIDE Circuit points, which also count towards Candidates qualification.
If not for anything else, Arjun will find plenty of motivation from his past heartbreaks at the same event. He had finished level on points with inaugural champion D Gukesh in 2023, only for the latter to be declared winner via Sonneborn-Berger score.
Arjun found himself tied for the first spot in the following year as well, this time with compatriot Aravindh Chithambaram and American GM Levon Aronian, and it was Aravindh who triumphed in the tie-breaks.
After finishing short in consecutive editions, Arjun will hope to cross the final hurdle and stand on top of the podium for once.
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