Before the second event of the Grand Chelem Freestyle Chess tour in Paris, where he will be joined by the compatriots of Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi next month, the world n ° 5 Arjun Erigaisi reveals the strategy that could help him shine in the unpredictable format.
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After a disappointing start of the year with a 10th place at the Tata Steel chess event in the Netherlands, the Grand Master Indian Arjun Erigaisi will envisage a much better performance during the second stage of the Grand Chelem tour of freestyle chess which takes place in Paris next month. And joining n ° 5 of the world in the “city of light” are the world champion of gukesh, Tata Steel Chess 2025 champion R Praggnanandhaa and empties Gujrathi, in addition to Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura – The players of the top -Two in the world.
Read also | “Freestyle failures permanently the future of sport, but not in the next 10 years”: Arjun Erigaisi
Freestyle Chess, also known as Fischer Random or Chess960, was an interesting challenge for some of the biggest names in sport, and is as unpredictable as the layout of the pieces on the set – which are chosen at random a few minutes before the start of a match.
Gukesh had experienced a red -heated race in the classic format in recent months, which included his triumph in the world championship in Singapore, but failed to win a single match at the opening event in Weissenhaus. Carlsen and Nakamura, on the other hand, finished the third and fifth respectively, the local favorite Vincent Keymer winning the Weissenhaus event in front of them.
Arjun Erigaisi emphasizes the “ control of the Center ” before the Freestyle chess event
Before his debut at the Freestyle chess, Erigaisi seems to have discovered a strategy that could help him in his battles against compatriots Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa as well as against Carlsen, Nakamura, Keymer and the rest of the field.
“Something that I recently discovered is as follows: at the start, I thought that in freestyle, you often need to quickly open diagonals for bishops or queens,” said Erigaisi in an interview with Freestyle Chess who was published on Friday.
“But I noticed that control of the center – like playing E4 or D4 – is always important, even if these movements are not immediately open.
Erigaisi had won a hat -trick of the events of Freestyle Friday on Chess.com during the preparation for the Paris event, and hopes to take the distance from the Paris event, which takes place from April 7 to 14.
