Arjun Erigaisi (born 3 September 2003)[1] is an Indian chess grandmaster and India's highest ranked player as of June 2024, overtaking former world champion Viswanathan Anand. A chess prodigy, he earned the title of grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 13 days, making him the 32nd youngest person ever to achieve the title of grandmaster. He is the 54th grandmaster from India. He won the 2022 Indian National Championship.[2]
In October 2021, Arjun placed 2nd at the Junior U21 Round Table Open Chess Championship (Classical) held in Bulgaria. He scored 7/9, along with Alexey Sarana.[8]
In November 2021, Arjun placed 3rd/82 in the Lindores Abbey Blitz Tournament at Riga ahead of players such as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian, David Navara, Daniil Dubov, Peter Svidler and many others.[9] Later that month, Arjun won the Rapid section of the Tata Steel India Chess Tournament (Rapid and Blitz). He scored 6.5/9, ahead of Vidit Gujrathi, Levon Aronian, Sam Shankland and Lê Quang Liêm.[10] He clinched the win by holding Levon Aronian to a draw in a losing position.[11] He was able to play in the Blitz section of the tournament due to a last minute withdrawal by Adhiban Baskaran; he scored 11/18 along with Levon Aronian and placed 2nd after losing to Levon Aronian where Arjun had winning position in 2 Armageddon tiebreak matches.
In January 2022, Arjun won Tata Steel Chess 2022 Challengers,[12] qualifying him to play in the masters section in the next Tata Steel Chess tournament. His final score was 10.5/13 and his TPR in the tournament was 2800+ which propelled his FIDE Rating to 2659.5 thereby breaking into the top 100 in Classical format.
In March 2022, he was crowned the Indian National Champion by winning the 58th MPL National Championship of India 2022 with a score of 8.5/11. Furthermore, in March Arjun won the 19th Delhi Open- edging out Gukesh D and Harsha Bharathakoti on tie-break after all scored 8.5/10.[13]
In April 2022, he participated in the first leg of MPL Indian Chess Tour organised by Chess24 and clinched the victory with a round to spare with a score of 30/45 (+8 =6 -1).[citation needed]
In August 2022, Arjun won the 28th Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival with 7.5/9 and a performance rating of 2893.[14]
In December 2022, Arjun won Tata Steel Chess India 2022 Blitz with 12.5/18, which was his third victory in Tata Steel events to date.[15]
In April 2024, Arjun won Menorca Open A on superior tie-break score after he tied with 2 others with a score of 7.5/9. He also reached top 5 in live world ranking briefly during that tournament.[16]
In June 2024, Arjun won the Stepan Avagyan Memorial 2024 with a round to spare. He also reached top 4 in live world ranking and 2779.9 live rating briefly during that tournament.[17]
^Subrahmanyam, V. V. (2 August 2016). "Hanamkonda boy set to create ripples in chess world". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 25 June 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2018 – via thehindu.com. Erigaisi Arjun, a Class VIII student, qualifies for World Youth Chess championship, and the Asian championship
^Rao, Rakesh (30 June 2021). "Arjun falls to Aronian in tiebreaker". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 11 July 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2021. Arjun Erigiasi's gallant show against Levon Aronian ended in the blitz tiebreaker
