Arjun Erigaisi spills the beans on losing India No. 1 spot to D Gukesh: ‘One of the toughest tournaments of my life’

Arjun Erigaisi had a topsy-turvy campaign at the recently-concluded Tata Chess Masters, and it also saw him lose his India No. 1 spot to reigning world champion D Gukesh. Erigaisi’s tournament started off on a very shaky note, where he was failing to even bag a win as he crashed to four defeats in the first seven rounds. Then he managed to put in a late resurgence with four consecutive draws before defeating Nodirbek Abdusattarov and Gukesh in the final two games, which had a huge impact on the standings.

Initially, the Uzbek GM and Gukesh were on course to win the trophy, but then later results saw Nodirbek fall out of contention as R Praggnanandhaa staged a late comeback to level proceedings with Gukesh on the standings. The title was decided in the tie-breaker round and Praggnanandhaa reigned supreme.

Speaking to Indian Express, Arjun said, “It was one of the toughest tournaments of my life so far. There is always learning to be taken away from tournaments. Especially in such tournaments like there are many (learnings to be taken away). But the ones that I can reveal is that I was playing a bit too aggressively and taking too much risks.”

“Actually this I realized like mid-event, like during the tournament itself. So in the second half of the tournament, I was trying to play more solidly and, since then, it went better.”

He also revealed his plans for this year and remarked that he would be competing at the Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam event. “I will be competing in the Paris edition of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour later this year,” reveals Erigaisi before adding: “I will also be playing at Norway Chess this tear. I will of course play the Grand Swiss and FIDE World Cup to try and qualify for the Candidates tournament. Apart from that, I don’t have an idea where I will play. But I think it will be the typical World Rapid Blitz and maybe World Rapid Blitz Team events this year,” he added.