By Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Goa
At around 6.30 pm, Levon Aronian came out of the playing hall. He was pitted against Arjun Erigaisi in the second game of Round 5 of the FIDE World Cup. The game had been headed towards a draw a few minutes earlier and everyone thought the players were off to the tie-breakers, as the player from the United States started signing autographs with a smile on his face.
They were wrong.
News broke soon that Erigaisi had found a major breakthrough to defeat his opponent with the black pieces. When he stepped out, it was bedlam. Not in thousands or hundreds, but fans, mostly children, surrounded him by the dozens and that autograph-and-photograph session went on for about 15 minutes. The Indian had become the first player to qualify for the quarterfinals of the most prestigious knockout chess tournament in the world.
“It is definitely nice that chess has more and more fans now,” said the 21-year-old, who had lost to R Praggnanandhaa in the previous edition of the World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2023. “It clearly shows that chess is growing in India and I hope it will continue to grow further and further. Overall, I am quite happy with the way I have played in this tournament.”
It was an unforeseen outcome. The commentators bringing it live from the Fan Zone were of the opinion that neither side had any decisive edge, although one or the other did get ahead slightly at different stages. What Erigaisi had was a time advantage. The experts attributed this to his sound preparation, which helped him make moves in a flash most of the time. They also said he was lining up an attack, but didn’t have much of an opening.
According to the player from Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, he started sniffing a chance after Aronian made an offer for a draw when the game appeared to be petering out into one. The experts had been saying that he doesn’t usually accept such offers and prefers staying in the game when he sees that he can’t lose. That’s exactly how it happened.
“It was a tense middle game,” said the highest-rated player of this World Cup, who is ranked sixth in the world. Aronian is a two-time winner of this title, but the 43-year-old is ranked 23rd. “I was not able to understand if I was on the better side of equality or the worse side of equality. But after he offered a draw, it gave me some confidence to play for a win. Because I knew he was happy with the draw. I thought I should use this to push for a win.”
It was a huge win for him because it takes him closer to a top-three finish, which secures a ticket to the Candidates Championship next year. He came close but could not qualify for the elite eight-player meet last year, when D Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi made the cut. The winner of the Candidates will challenge Gukesh in the World Championship.
Pentala Harikrishna, the other Indian remaining in this competition who is also from Andhra, drew his second game against Jose Martinez Alcantara of Mexico. He goes into the tie-breakers to be played in the shorter formats on Sunday. The commentators were saying he held an advantage with white at times. But it was not decisive. Despite his efforts, the 39-year-old couldn’t break through. Three more games will be decided in the shootout.
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