The Indian campaign at the world rapid and blitz chess championship in New York got off to a modest start. Raunak Sadhwani and Arjun Erigaisi scored four points each from the first five rounds in the rapid format – to be played over 13 rounds – in the open section. Four players, lower rated than the top guns, secured 4.5 points each. At the moment, Raunak is fifth on the table and Arjun 12th.
Magnus Carlsen, the reigning champion and World No. 1 across formats, endured a disappointing day in the event dubbed the Wall Street Gambit, because of the address it is being staged at. The Norwegian could only manage three draws, a defeat and a solitary win. That left him 83rd in a field of 180 players with 2.5 points. However, these are early hours in the competition.
Alice Lee of USA was leading the women’s section, which will have 11 rounds. After the first four of those, she was the only one with a tally of four points. Dronavalli Harika of India was in a pack of four players on 3.5 and placed fourth. With three points and in 15th position was R Vaishali.
This is a crucial outing for Arjun because he can secure direct qualification for the Candidates from the FIDE Circuit only if he wins it. It will also depend on how Fabiano Caruana fares. The current leader of this qualification channel from USA was 23rd with 3.5 points. It doesn’t mean that the 21-year-old from India has an advantage at this stage. Things in speed chess can change any moment, but it has to be said that Arjun has got off to a good start.
Another youngster, Raunak, lived up to his billing of being a strong shorter-format player. The 19-year-old from Nagpur won his first three games and drew the last two. V Pranav, the recently-crowned world under-18 champion in rapid and blitz, was 32nd with 3.5 points. R Praggnanandhaa was 56th with three points. Diptayan Ghosh was also on three, in 69th place.
It was not a great opening day for most of the Indians in the women’s section. Other than Harika and Vaishali, the rest found the going tough. Former world rapid champion Koneru Humpy was 38th with 2.5 points. Vantika Agarwal was 35th with same number of points. The sensation in the longer format, Divya Deshmukh, had a poor beginning and could only log two points to be placed 70th.