Arjun Erigaisi becomes first Indian chess player to qualify for upcoming Esports World Cup

Arjun Erigaisi became the first Indian chess player to qualify for the Esports World Cup that will be taking place in Saudi Arabia later this year. The 21-year-old Grandmaster confirmed his participation in the upcoming event by finishing among the top 12 players in the Champions Chess Tour.

Arjun confirmed his ticket to the Saudi capital, which will be hosting the second edition of the Esports World Cup from 8 July to 24 August this year, by advancing to the playoffs of the Chess.com Classic – the second event of the Champions Chess Tour that got underway on Sunday and will conclude on Saturday.

How Arjun secured his qualification for the Esports World Cup

Arjun had already collected 40 CCT points with a semi-final finish in the Chessable Masters event that took place in February, where he lost to eventual champion Magnus Carlsen. And by advancing to the playoffs of the Chess.com Classic, Arjun ensured that he finishes among the top 12 in the CCT leaderboard.

A total of 16 players will be participating in chess section of the Esports World Cup ; while 12 players qualify on the basis of their standings, the remaining four will have to confirm their place in the tournament by participating in a ‘Last Chance Qualifier’.

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Polish GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda too confirmed his participation at the EWC along with Arjun by entering the Chess.com Classic playoffs in addition to collecting 50 points in the first leg of the tour. World No 1 Carlsen as well as Hikaru Nakamura and Ian Nepomniachtchi had already qualified for the World Cup before the second leg of the tour even began.

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Reigning world champion D Gukesh received a direct invitation into the Chess.com Classic playoffs, only to lose to Slovenian GM Vladimir Fedoseev, who had won the Swiss round of the tournament with 7.5 points out of 9. He would lose his subsequent match in the loser’s bracket against Arjun, who in turn would get vanquished by French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in his subsequent game.

Arjun and Gukesh weren’t the only Indians competing in the second leg of the Champions Chess Tour though, with R Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi, Nihal Sarin and M Pranesh having also taken part.

Arjun, incidentally, was also among the first chess players to join an Esports organisation, having signed with Gen.G in February. Nihal and Aravindh Chithambaram would join Indian Esports organisation S8UL a couple of months later.