Arjun Erigaisi. (Photo Credits: X)
The 22-year-old Arjun Erigaisi defeated Magnus Carlsen in the 9th round of the World Blitz Championship in Doha on Monday. Arjun won against Nodirbek Abdusattorov to take the sole lead with 8.5 points. He then split the points with Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (MVL) in the next two rounds.
In the last outing of the day, he played out a quick 18-move draw with fourth seed Daniil Dubov. Magnus won the last round to remain in contention with just one point behind leaders — Arjun, Caruana and MVL at 10 points each.
Arjun Erigaisi who hails from Telangana made headlines very early in his career when he became a Grandmaster at the age of 14 years. 2024 turned out to be an important year for the youngster as he became the top-rated player in September and achieved his peak rating of 2801 in December. He is the second Indian ever to cross the 2800 threshold after Viswanathan Anand.
Arjun’s father is a neurosurgeon while he was himself studying Data Science before he decided to dropout in December 2021. He became the first Indian to qualify to the Goldmoney Asian Rapid of the Champions Chess Tour 2021.
This is the second instance where Arjun Erigaisi defeated Magnus Carlsen this year having earlier defeated the Norwegian at the Norway Chess tournament in classical format. Fresh from his bronze medal finish, Arjun recorded eight wins, two draws and just one loss which put him firmly in pole position.
Arjun’s victory against Carlsen has proved decisive in Round 9 as he won with the black pieces before following it up by defeating Uzbek grandmaster Nodirbek Abdusattorov in Round 10. With this, Arjun opened up a half-point lead at the top of the standings. Later, Erigaisi was held to a draw by Fabiano Caruana, forcing the players to split the point in Round 11. The Indian is now the joint leader alongside renowned Uzbek grandmaster Nodirbek Abdusattorov, with both players sitting on nine points after 11 rounds of the FIDE World Blitz Championship.
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