Mumbai: After flying smoothly in a tournament where its top prospects suffered a bumpy ride, Arjun Erigaisi’s game and body language met with turbulence at possibly the worst time for him.
It took out the second seed in the quarter-finals of the FIDE World Cup, crushed his goal of getting into the Candidates from being — much like in the previous World Cup — within touching distance of it, and left no Indian in the last four in Goa.
With less than 40 seconds left on the clock in the second apid tie-break game with Chinese Grandmaster Wei Yi, Erigaisi’s face oozed nerves. His eyes kept peeking towards the clock that, on a rare occasion through the past three weeks, wasn’t his friend. His left hand, so secure and swift in moving the pieces almost all tournament so far, uncharacteristically hesitated in reaching out to the white rook after more than 10 seconds had been further wiped off the clock.
That move — 41. Rf2, a blunder as per the engines, brought Erigaisi down from a somewhat balanced position to one of danger at a critical moment in the game.
That was the start of the world No.6 and top-ranked Indian’s final few minutes in the World Cup, arriving a lot sooner than expected given his seeding and solid showing up until then.
Erigaisi had plotted a gritty escape with black in the first Rapid game. This position, though, was a lot more precarious. And Yi wasn’t going to squander the advantage a second time over. The Chinese did make a couple of inaccurate moves in the end game, but so did the Indian who, under immense pressure for perhaps the first time in the tournament, wasn’t clinical enough to wriggle out of trouble.
By the 50th move, it was clear there could only be one result. Erigaisi could have resigned any moment then, but chose to play out till the checkmate 79th move.
That’s when he pulled out his right hand to signal the end. Unlike in his previous rounds where he often stayed put on his seat to revisit and analyze moves with the opponent, Erigaisi got up and walked off in a jiffy this time after rearranging the pieces on the board.
This may well sting for the 22-year-old from Warangal. On multiple counts.
One, Erigaisi had also fallen at the same stage of the 2023 World Cup, a result that took time to digest and bounce back from. He will now have to endure the disappointment of once again coming so close yet staying so far from the coveted Candidates, for which three spots were reserved from this World Cup. R Praggnanandhaa, who beat him in the 2023 quarter-finals, remains the runaway leader in the FIDE Circuit leaderboard from where one spot is still available.
Two, unlike the previous World Cup that featured a stacked field including Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, several top stars did not sign up for the Goa event. It meant Erigaisi carried the highest rating (Elo 2773) coming into the World Cup, and his Candidates dream was a much more realistic shot. “The goal is to qualify for the Candidates,” he had said before the tournament.
Three, among the six top seeds, five had already exited before the quarter-final, leaving the second seed with a relatively easier pathway on paper.
The draw, however, left Erigaisi with the trickiest opponent to get past from the last eight. Yi (Elo 2754) hasn’t had the best of years but is a solid player. Erigaisi had the opportunity to break him and get the decisive result in the second classical game on Tuesday. Because he fluffed it, reckoned Yi, it affected both of them.
“Yes, maybe. After yesterday (Tuesday), if I lost, I would have no chance. So today I thought it was my chance, and I will try my best. And also maybe he felt upset after yesterday,” Yi told FIDE.
Erigaisi played with aplomb and authority across his previous four victories. On Wednesday, it was Yi’s turn to dictate.
Playing with white, Yi gained an early advantage in the first rapid game and did not give any openings to Erigaisi to mount a comeback. But under severe time trouble in the end game where he played the last few moves only on the 10 second increment, the Chinese relinquished his upper hand. Erigaisi stood tall in defence, managed to hold on to a draw and take the momentum into the second game with white.
That momentum was taken away by what Yi analysed as Erigaisi being a bit too adventurous and eager towards the end.
“In the second game, he played solidly. We arrived in the end game and I think he tried to win at first, but then maybe he just pushed too much. And then I found some chances to fight,” Yi said.
