Arjun Erigaisi pocketed a cool $50,000 (approximately Rs 43 lakh) after ending fifth at the Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour on Monday. Arjun defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the playoff for the fifth spot after defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the previous classification game. Arjun had lost to Hikaru Nakamura in the quarter-finals. Nakamura lost in the final on Monday to world no 1 Magnus Carlsen, who took home $200,000 (approximately Rs 1.7 crore) for finishing on top in Paris.
Arjun was the best finisher among the four Indians in action in the 12-player field. The others were Arjun’s teammates from the Chess Olympiad gold medal winning Indian team: Praggnanandhaa (who ended 9th), world champion Gukesh and Vidit Gujrathi (both of whom shared last spot in the event).
“This is one of the most fun tournaments I have had in the last few years,” Arjun told Chessbase India after his win over Vachier-Lagrave.
When asked why that was, he said: “No pressure. It was very easy to play.”
Like Carlsen, Arjun will now head to Grenke to compete in another freestyle event from Friday. The Grenke event will be an open tournament where players will play two classical games per day.
While Ian Nepomniachtchi was among those who grumbled at being made to play classification matches for the 5th to 8th position at the Freestyle Chess event after losing out on a spot in the semi-finals, Arjun was glad to get some games in.
“It was disappointing to not be able to play for first spot, but it’s practice for other freestyle tournaments. So I wouldn’t call it frustrating,” Arjun told the official broadcaster of the event after beating his French opponent.
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“Losing to Hikaru was disappointing because I got a better position out of the opening in both games. After losing the first game to Nepo, I was not so optimistic,” admitted Arjun.
