New Delhi: A chess fight is different. The players aren’t geared for battle. They aren’t about to go at each other without limits. Nothing underhanded is in the works and even when they lose or draw, games usually end in a discussion; an exchange of ideas.
There are very few players who give off the feeling that they are coming to get you. It’s either you or them and that is why over 70% of Classical games between players rated 2700+ end in draws. Not everyone wants to risk it. Well, most times, it is not worth it.
However, there are some exceptions to the rule. Magnus Carlsen, with fist thumps and more, leads the pack, Hikaru Nakamura certainly features but perhaps the maddest of them all is Arjun Erigaisi.
Regardless of who he plays, the draw is the last thing on Arjun’s mind. He deals in chaos and unbalanced positions, loves sharp positions and it is working for him. A rare winning streak in the Freestyle Friday event, had Carlsen referring to him as “the Mad Man” of chess.
On Tuesday, the 22-year-old from India capped a brilliant run at the World Rapid and Blitz chess championships in Doha, winning bronze in both formats and becoming only the second Indian to win medals at both the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in the same year, after Viswanathan Anand did so in Riyadh in 2017. He is also the only Indian player to feature in the top 10 of the Classical (2775 Elo, #5), Rapid (2746, #3) and Blitz (2777, #7) FIDE rankings.
But invitations to closed door chess events have failed to materialise as often as they should have. It almost makes one wonder if Arjun is still, in a sense, knocking on the door?
“Arjun does not belong to any school (of play),” said GM Pravin Thipsay. “It is a street flight school. He is a streetfighter, and that is an advantage and disadvantage. See, as long as it was Swiss format, and you don’t know who is up next, he led the tournament with some authority. And when the opponent is known and two players are playing a match with each other, he went down.
“Arjun has also touched the magical 2800 Elo ratings mark in 2024 but he’s not getting the invitations to closed tournaments. I am not sure why — he is exciting, he will never play for a draw and organisers should like that.”
Some argue that he will never be part of the conversation until he wins something big. In 2021, on the Champions Chess Tour, he beat Alireza Firouzja, Daniil Dubov, Peter Svidler, and Vidit Gujrathi. He eventually lost in a hard-fought tiebreak against Levon Aronian. That is a bit of a trend for him — he has good runs; great runs but stops short of the trophy.
Even in the World Rapid, the feeling persisted until this year. In 2022, 2023 and 2024, he missed bronze by 0.5 points.
There have been wins too, notably Tata Steel Chess Challengers (2022), Abu Dhabi Masters (2022), WR Chess Masters Cup (London, 2024), Menorca Open A (2024) and Stepan Avagyan Memorial (2024). But unlike, D Gukesh or R Praggnanandhaa, nothing really big has landed in his lap yet and the near-misses hurt.
“Arjun has always had a natural tendency towards exerting pressure on himself through having high expectations and he has to, sort of, do away with it,” said Srinath Narayanan, who has coached Arjun in the past. “And you can try to do away with your natural tendencies in certain situations where you are in your comfort zone or you have that time. But when you’re put under pressure and you have to dig deep to your resource in limited time. Then generally what you have trained reverts to your natural style.”
The natural style is something that works beautifully against opponents ranked in the mid-2600s and lower. But against more solid opponents, should a more sane line be explored?
While talking about Arjun’s play, Anand once said, “Beauty of Arjun’s play is that sometimes even when he is playing complete rubbish, it looks like prep.” But that bluff doesn’t work against the best.
“It impacts in a lot of different ways,” said Srinath. “They (the top players) are very solid players against whom the things that Arjun generally does to bulldoze opposition of slightly lower level is not going to work.
Srinath added: “And he has to learn and adapt to how they play. And also understand that to draw the line of risk. Uh, these are things that he needs to learn through experiences and for that he needs to play a lot of different events.”
For Arjun to continue growing as a player, he needs more invites to top events because that exposure is the only way for him to fine tune his methods against the best. “It’s also the abundance and scarcity theory, in the sense that if someone has an abundance of opportunities, they’re going to be more relaxed when that big opportunity arrives,” said Srinath. “Conversely, if someone has a scarcity of opportunities, you want to make the most of it and it can work either way, but in general, more likely that it affects you negatively.”
And that is the biggest challenge for Arjun. He has to hope that he has done enough to attract the attention of big tournament organisers. If not, then, maybe in time, the raw spirit of his streetfighting cred will make him hard to ignore. It is the path he has chosen and the one that he must walk, with a little more nuance, till the end. It is what makes him special. It is what makes him Arjun.
