Arjun Erigaisi: Can he be the challenger to D. Gukesh in two years’ time?

When D. Gukesh, the reigning world chess champion, goes to defend his title in two years’ time – there is a fair chance of it being an all-Indian affair. Arjun Erigaisi, now ranked world No.4, showed why as he continued to fly the flag for Indian chess high in the New Year when he won the high profile online Titled Tuesday weekly blitz competition.

His wins along the way were against world No.1 Magnus Carlsen with black pieces in Round 10, world No.2 Fabiano Caruana in the final round while the 21-year-old’s only loss was against world No.2 Hikaru Nakamura in the seventh round. Gukesh, incidentally, did not participate in the online event open for titled players with genuine Chess.com profiles.  

While Titled Tuesday is not an official event, it’s a marquee affair contested among the top players of the world. Arjun, who played a key role in Indian men winning the Chess Olympiad in Budapest last year, is rated very highly in the fraternity - ranked a position higher than Gukesh (5^th) and is only the 15th player in history to cross the Elo rating mark of 2800 points.

Speaking to National Herald from Prague, GM Pentala Harikrishna – who was a second to Gukesh during his World Championship game - felt strongly about Arjun’s chances to be a potential candidate to face compatriot Gukesh for the world title in two years’ time. ‘’Since Carlsen has decided against competing for the world crown anymore, there are only Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura in between. Arjun is the youngest in the top four with Gukesh following him in fifth position – hence there is a fair chance of him clashing for the world title,’’ Harikrishna said over phone.

 What are the realistic chances of Arjun making it to the Candidates in 2026 – the qualifier to decide on the challenger to take on Gukesh ? While the prodigious Arjun has not been able to qualify from the FIDE circuit so far (Caruana has qualified), he can still make the cut provided he maintains his position among the top four in the world. This means he has to maintain a degree of consistency throughout the year.

Chess over Data Science

 Born into a Telugu family in Telangana’s Warangal, Arjun studied chess at the BS Chess Academy in Hanamkonda. Until December 2021, he was studying data science before deciding to drop out of college during the first year to focus on his chess career – and the calculated gamble has paid off well.

 Arjun won a silver medal in the 2015 Asian Youth Championship in Korea. Later in 2021, he became the first Indian to qualify to the Goldmoney Asian Rapid of the Champions Chess Tour 2021. In January 2022, Arjun won the Tata Steel Chess 2022 Challengers and was crowned the Indian national champion by winning the 58th MPL National Championship of India 2022.

 There was no looking back for him as Arjun won the 28th Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival in August and Tata Steel Chess India 2022 Blitz in December. Last year had been a fruitful one for him when Arjun won the Menorca Open A on a superior tie-break in April, the Stepan Avagyan Memorial 2024 in June and the 2024 WR Chess Masters Cup in London in October.