HYDERABAD: Telangana chess prodigy Arjun Erigaisi’s career got a shot in the arm on Wednesday as the Grand Master signed a lucrative Rs 12.4 crore long term sponsorship deal.
The Warangal teen has been on a roll in 2022, winning several tournaments. He even defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen recently.
But with expenses incurred by competing at the top level mounting, it was becoming difficult for him to sustain his career and the five-year deal with Singapore-based quantitative trading firm Quantbox happened at the right time for Arjun.
Quantbox founder and CEO Prashant Singh, a former chess player and a big fan of Arjun, signed up Arjun without ado after getting to know that the player was seeking a sponsor.
“I am so happy that Quantbox has decided to sponsor me,” Arjun told TOI on Wednesday. “I am very thankful to a lot of people, starting with Prashant, the CEO of Quantbox. I would also thank the people who have been supporting me all the while, my family, my team, my trainer Srinath, my managers Sreekar and Manu,” Arjun said and added that he tried a lot to get sponsors in the last few years.
“I am relieved after getting this sponsorship. I need to build a team around me, work with trainers and play a number of tournaments around the world,” he added.
The deal is also a major relief for his parents, who have spent nearly Rs 1.5 crore on Arjun. “All credit to his father, his only sponsor so far,” Arjun’s mother Jyothi told TOI. “Securing this sponsorship is a big relief for us. We had to spend a lot on coaching and most of his tournaments are in Europe,” said his mother who accompanies Arjun on tours.
His coach Srinath Naryanan hoped this deal would be a stepping stone for bigger things in his career. “I am quite excited. This will be a major stepping stone in his career. I am also happy for chess as this can act as a precedent for big companies to sponsor chess players,” Srinath told TOI.
Arjun is the first Grand Master after Telangana was formed in 2014 — he became a GM aged 14 years and 11 months in 2018.
This year he won the Tata Steel Challengers with a round to spare. He became the National champion and followed it up by winning the Delhi Open in March. He also made it to the finals of Generation Cup and registered one victory against Magnus Carlsen in an online game. He had an outstanding tournament for India ‘A’ at the 44th Chess Olympiad. He also won the Tata Steel Chess India blitz event recently.
Arjun’s next stop will be the rapid blitz World championship in Kazakhstan. “I am taking it one step at a time and for now I want to win the rapid blitz World championship later this month,”Arjun said.
