At 2.45PM on Tuesday, Vidit Gujrathi was the first one to enter the playing hall at the Anna Centenary Library that is playing host to the Chennai Grand Masters event. With an ever-present smile, he took his chair before wandering off for one final walk. On returning, he greeted his opponent for the day Arjun Erigaisi in what was the match of the opening round with all the lensmen mobbing the board. A good five hours later, Vidit Gujrathi would storm out of the hall and even the building, perhaps still wondering where he lost it.
Or rather how Arjun Erigaisi managed to win. Playing with black at one stage the 21-year-old Arjun Erigaisi thought he ‘had no chance of winning as Vidit Gujrathi had the upper hand’. The evaluation bar even showed Vidit Gujrathi having an upper hand in the middle game. As the game progressed it would show they were on equal footing. But settling for a draw isn’t in Arjun Erigaisi’s DNA whose game is to push for win at all costs. Tuesday was no different. Perhaps it was the instincts that took over. A little later he could sense Vidit Gujrathi feeling a bit of pressure. And off his 87th move, Vidit Gujrathi would crumble.
“I didn’t see a win for myself,” Arjun Erigaisi said. “In the end, it was almost a draw. He blundered with king e5 and I also hadn’t seen king g6 earlier. But luckily I saw it there and I took my chance. When I played king g6 I knew that I at least had a draw. And now I’m the only one playing for the win. When I played h3, I calculated everything till the win. There I was sure of winning,” he added.
When Arjun Erigaisi came to Chennai for the inaugural edition of the event last year, he was just beginning to learn to detach from the results. He had ended up runners-up at the event with D Gukesh winning the title on the final day. This time Arjun Erigaisi has arrived in Chennai not just as a favourite but as India’s No 1 and World No 3. Thanks to the incredible 12 months he has had, which has seen a huge jump in his ratings apart from being part of the gold medal winning Olympiad side.
With the win on Tuesday, Arjun Erigaisi’s live ranking crossed 2800 for the second time in his career. Another win on Wednesday will see him become World No 2 and overtake Fabiano Caruana’s (2805). It is for sure a moment of huge significance. It is what Arjun Erigaisi feverishly hoped for a while ago but the 2024 version doesn’t fret about such stuff.
“This entire year has been great and I’m just happy that I survived and won the game in the end. This year, I worked on divesting myself from the results and ranking and just playing. I realised it when I failed to make it to the Candidates last year. Since then I have worked on it. Earlier I used to fumble under pressure. But now I’m detached from the results. I don’t feel much pressure, only moments. For now I am just relieved that I survived the game,” Arjun Erigaisi said.
There was a period in his career where he was technical, but some of his games lacked dynamism. A conversation with his then coach Srinath Narayanan would open a new world for him, where he would not relent until he found a way to win games from improbable situations. It meant he had to be dynamic and create the sort of chaos on the board that would force his opponents to make mistakes, like it happened with Vidit Gujrathi on Tuesday.
“From being a weakness, it became by strength,” Arjun Erigaisi said.
Tuesday’s results at Chennai Grand Masters:
Masters: Aravindh Chithambaram (0.5) drew with Amin Tabatabaei (Irn, 0.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 1) bt Parham Maghsoodloo (Irn, 0); Vidit Gujrathi (0) lost to Arjun Erigaisi (1); Levon Aronian (US, 0.5) drew with Alexey Sarana (Ser, 0.5).
Challengers: Vaishali Rameshbabu (0) lost to Leon Luke Mendonca (1); Raunak Sadhwani (1) bt Karthikeyan Murali (0); M. Pranesh (0) lost to Abhimanyu Puranik (1); V. Pranav (1) bt Harika Dronavalli (0).
