In a field of 14 players, this is how the Indians are placed: D Gukesh is ninth, Arjun Erigaisi 11th, R Praggnanandhaa 13th and Aravindh Chithambaram 14th.
Players suffer bad tournaments. There come times when nothing goes their way. It happens to every athlete, across sports. Not often are they seen flopping so spectacularly as a pack as the Indians have at Tata Steel Masters — the year’s first and one of the biggest events in classical chess.
After seven rounds in the traditional venue of this competition in Wijk Aan Zee and six more to play, the Indian challenge is sinking. The second and fourth seeds are Indians. The world champion is also in the fray. With four entries, this is the country with maximum participation. It is also the worst-performing contingent in the event so far.
All of them are jaded due to constant travel through time zones, but so are most of their rivals. Not winning was the problem initially in coastal town in northern Netherlands. Now, the top guns have started tumbling. Successive defeats for Gukesh, two in three games for Arjun Erigaisi — this is easily the worst collective showing by the bunch of youngsters who conquered everything in the last three years and became global superstars.
Erigaisi losing to 14-year-old Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus was the headline of the seventh round. The world No. 5 and second seed lost the plot with white pieces after the players appeared to be even after the opening exchanges. The Turkish wonder boy’s first win of the competition dashed the Indian’s fading hopes of making a comeback. Half-a-point behind the lead after four rounds, Erigaisi has collected half-a-point more in the last three. With a tally of three, he is 2.5 points behind Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
Gukesh is also on three points. The notable part is that’s what his tally was after the fifth-round game he won. He came back from a day of rest to endure back-to-back defeats. Against Abdusattorov in the sixth round, the Indian made a blunder.
Commentators on live stream were saying it might be difficult to come back from that and Gukesh paid for another error against Anish Giri of the Netherlands in the seventh round.
Giri was winless before this game and on two points with Praggnanandhaa. Unlike the world No. 6, the defending champion from India failed to break that run against Matthias Bluebaum. He will again meet the German at the Candidates starting on March 28. In his last outing before that, the world No. 8 has cut a sorry figure.
One of the drawbacks of a 13-round tournament is drudgery. For some, things keep getting worse and with six rounds remaining, Aravindh finds himself in that position. He lost to Jorden van Foreest of the Netherlands. A third setback of this event made the 26-year-old the sole occupant of the last spot. How heavily this chain of lowly performances costs him in ELO ratings will be known in the updated list next month.
This is a massive year for Indian chess. Praggnanandhaa goes to Candidates, Erigaisi renews his quest for a berth in the next edition of that tournament, the Indian team goes to the Chess Olympiad as the reigning champions, before Gukesh takes on the Candidates winner in the World Championship duel. A total of two wins and nine defeats in 25 collective appearancesat Tata Steel Masters so far means the countdown has started on an inauspicious note.
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