NAGPUR: Arjun Erigaisi, the 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster (GM), took the over-the-board Lindores Abbey Blitz chess tournament by storm in Riga, Latvia. Not only did he win the bronze medal in the event and climb 85 ranks to become world No. 31 in live blitz rankings, he walked his way into the prestigious 2700 Elo club, becoming the youngest member of the elite group.
In a strong field of 120 players including 94 GMs, Arjun started as a 39th seed. After toppling the applecart of his higher-ranked rivals, he finished the seven-hour tourney at the joint second position and took his tally of international blitz rating to 2723 from 2616 Elo. In the 18 games that he played, Arjun gained as many as 107.2 points to become the youngest member in the elite 2700 club that has 37 players. The only other 18-year-old in the club is Alireza Firouzja from Iran, who is three months elder than Arjun.
In the 18-round event organised to mark the 85th birth anniversary of legendary chess master Mikhail Tal, Arjun had a dream start and was invincible in the first half of the tournament. He led the chart with nine full points. He surprised the likes of GMs Nino Batsiashvili, Levon Aronian, David Howell, and Rauf Mamedov with a clear 2-0 margin and defeated Haik Martirosyan 1.5-0.5, before making it 1-1 with American stars Fabiano Caruana and Jeffery Xiong.
The only defeat that the Warangal-based GM faced came in the penultimate round when he lost to eventual champion and 19-year-old Ukraine GM Kirill Shevchenko. Fighting his way back, Arjun scored an upset 2-0 win over seventh seeded Ukraine's 2718 GM Korobov Anton to finish the event collecting 13.5 points.
While Shevchenko emerged on top of the table with 14 points, Arjun had a tie with Caruana at the second position. Based on the tie-break score, Arjun finished third.
Arjun was over the moon when legends like Boris Gefland and Levon Aronian congratulated him for his impressive show. "It was a very nice gesture from them, specially Levon, who complimented me quite a lot. He analyzed my game so well. He was just being very nice," Arjun told TOI.
Arjun felt he could have been better and was overall happy with his performance. "I had no expectations going into the tournament, I just wanted to have fun and give my best. Fortunately, things worked out well," he said.
Arjun added, "I wasn't tense but was trying to take one game at a time. I was a bit disappointed after losing both the games to Shevchenko but I am glad to bounce back well in the final round."
On facing the legends, he said, "I was just trying to give my best, didn't care too much about who I was playing. Probably that helped me."
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand too was elated with Arjun's show. "Congrats to Arjun Erigaisi. A great performance in such a strong field," Anand tweeted.
