Arjun Erigaisi is not letting it go without a fight. To qualify for the Candidates next year, he has to win the ongoing world rapid chess competition. That’s not all. The player he is trailing in the qualification race through the FIDE Circuit, Fabiano Caruana of USA, has to finish outside the top 23.
After nine of the 13 rounds, the Indian youngster is tied at the top on points and third on tie-break score. He has seven points, with three others. Caruana is 24th with six points. It is going just the way Arjun would have liked. He can qualify for the eight-player Candidates through other channels also, but if the above-described situations work out, he secures a spot right now.
With a rapid rating of 2694, Arjun is 14th in the field of 180-odd players in action in New York. He has meant business so far at Wall Street, by winning six, drawing two and losing just one of his nine games. Of the top-five in the tournament, he has already played against three. So, he might be facing players who are not doing as well as him in the last four rounds.
This is a big moment for the 21-year-old. He is better than world champion D Gukesh when it comes to world rankings in the classical format. Arjun is fourth and Gukesh fifth, but there is a gap between the two in terms of rating points. Considering that, Arjun is a favourite to qualify for the Candidates. The glitch for him is, he has not secured that spot yet.
Candidates is an eight-player event, the winner of which challenges the reigning world champion in the longest format. Three Indians made the cut for the competition last year and Gukesh won it before beating Ding Liren of China to become the youngest-ever world champion. Arjun was not part of that trio in Toronto and a lot of experts expect him to make the cut this time.
Before the world rapid and blitz event got underway, Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua had told RevSportz that Arjun stands the best chance among the Indians in the open section. Despite all their conquests in classical in 2024, Indians are not that strong when it comes to speed chess. Viswanathan Anand and Koneru Humpy are the only ones to have made a mark at the top level in senior competitions.
“Although we see that the world’s top one, two and three in classical are also good at the shorter formats, for some reason, that has not happened in India yet. After Arjun, who can be quick with his moves because of his powers of intuition, there is a distance. Probably because ratings in the classical format are still sacrosanct, we concentrate more on it. But as far as the rapid and blitz varieties go, I don’t see anyone other than Arjun standing a chance,” Barua had said.
As the business end of the world rapid meet approaches, Arjun is close to making history. No Indian other than Anand has won this title in the open section. In a year dominated by players from the country in all major events, it would be a perfect ending if Arjun nails this one. He is close, but in speed chess things can be unpredictable, like Magnus Carlsen’s controversial and dramatic withdrawal from the event for breaching the tournament’s formal dress code by wearing jeans.