India’s world no. 4 chess GM Arjun Erigaisi aims to have fun and crack at Candidates

NAGPUR: India’s highest ranked chess player Arjun Erigaisi said that his “main aim is to have fun”.
It’s easy to say that but hard to implement, especially when your own countrymen are rightfully hogging limelight and graduated to the next level: R Praggnanandhaa reaching the World Cup final; Vidit Gujrathi clinching the FIDE Swiss GP and D Gukesh boosting his rating.The trio made it to the Candidates and Gukesh went a step further winning it.
Arjun, who has touched world No. 4 in live rating (Elo 2771), thanks to his good show in the recent Open tournaments, told TOI: “It’s a good feeling to be world No. 4 but I am not caring too much about the rankings. Rating is not my priority. I am just enjoying the process and the main aim is to have fun.
“The World Cup was very close (tight race) between me and Pragg and missing out on that was quite painful,” said 20-year-old Arjun from Warangal, Telangana. “Similarly with the Candidates as I was close enough. It was pretty tough to cope with those missed opportunities but with time everything heals.”
On the lessons learnt in these testing times, former national champion Arjun (unlike Gukesh and Prag) said, “Purely in terms of chess, I had to clearly improve in technical aspects. There were many things outside the board. I was caring too much, and it used to affect me. This year I learned not to think too much and despite a bad loss I started to calm myself down and tried to play normally. It has helped me a lot.”
Despite the setbacks, Arjun continued his style of play by going for the kill in every game and has already set his goals of qualifying for the 2026 Candidates from where he can achieve his ultimate dream of becoming a world champion. Magnus Carlsen has recently called him “a complete mad man at the board and that he wants to kill you in every single game.”
Arjun said that his friend D Gukesh should start as favourite to win his World Championship match against reigning champion Ding Liren of China later this year.
“It is quite sad to see Ding going through this patch. With just some months to go before the world championship against Gukesh, it will be very tough for Ding to make a comeback and recover in such a short time, but I am hopeful he will be back to his strength. So most likely, Gukesh is a favourite, but I hope it (match) will be interesting.”
Arjun parted ways with WestBridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA) as he signed a long-term sponsorship deal with Quantbox Research for Rs 12.4 crore in December 2022.
Arjun said, “WACA was very helpful for me. At some point I had to make a decision of walking away from it and someone else will get my spot. I am sore that helps the person, I am happy the way things are happening.”
Arjun will be playing a couple of tournaments in Armenia and Spain next.