 "Arjun Erigaisi won the early Titled Tuesday online chess event. Image: X / @FIDE_chess")
Indian grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi defeated World No 1 Magnus Carlsen and World No 2 Fabiano Caruana in the early Titled Tuesday weekly blitz competition which is conducted by Chess.com. The competition was played around midnight on Tuesday and Arjun finished with 10 points from 11 rounds. The 21-year-old defeated Magnus Carlsen with black pieces in round 10, before beating Fabiano Caruana in the 11th and final round.
Erigaisi’s only loss came against Nakamura
Erigaisi lost his only match to American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, which came in round seven. Nakamura also ended the early Titled Tuesday event with 10 points, but Arjun had better tiebreaks. Nakamura, though, was first in the later 11-rounder event of Titled Tuesday. D Gukesh, who won the FIDE World Championship in December, did not participate in the competition.
The Titled Tuesday is an online competition for titled players who have legal accounts with Chess.com. Due to fair play reasons, players are asked to make themselves available for zoom calls. Players utilise competition like Titled Tuesday to remain consistent in the game and also claim bragging rights.
More than 900 players played in the latest edition of the Titled Tuesday, which Nakamura has claimed to be the “world’s strongest tournament”.
Arjun enjoyed a memorable 2024 that included winning the Chess Olympiad with the Indian team as well as clinching the WR Chess Masters Cup in London. In December, the Warangal-born grandmaster became only the second Indian to breach the 2800 Elo rating mark , after the legendary Viswanathan Anand.
Erigaisi’s hopes of competing in the 2026 Candidates tournament are however over after he failed to win the 2024 FIDE Rapid Championship in New York in December. Arjun was six points behind Fabiano Caruana in the FIDE Circuit standings which is why winning the Rapid Championship was important. Arjun finished the Rapid Championship in fifth place with nine points.