The inaugural visit of the Grand Chelem of Freestyle chess began earlier this month with the first of the five events taking place at the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort located on the German Baltic Coast. And it was not only the Chess960 format that proved unpredictable, the starting positions on the board revealed only 15 minutes before a match.
The spotlights were fixed on the trio of Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Gukesh Domomraju – which occupy the first three places in the Fid notes – before the start of the Weissenhaus event. And in the end, he was a relatively impudent Vincent Keymer, the home favorite, who won the winner’s trophy with a cash price of US $ 200,000.
The Grand Master Indian Arjun Erigaisi will make his debut in Freestyle tour in Paris in April, where he will participate alongside compatriots Gukesh – who had a forgetful race in Weissenhaus – and R Praggnanandhaa.
“I can’t wait to make my debut in a freestyle in Paris”
In an exclusive conversation with First postArjun is looking forward to presenting his skills in a very different format from what it has been used so far in his career. He also shared his reflections on the question of whether the Freestyle failures will eventually go beyond conventional failures in terms of popularity and will become the main format of sport – a notion that the world n ° 1 Carlsen has been proposing for some time now and is ready to go to war with Fide.
“Yeah, I think it’s definitely the future of sport. Not an immediate future but for the next generation, or perhaps a century later, at some point in the future. But that will probably not happen over the next 10 years.
“But still, I am happy that there is this big Freestyle slam tour, which occurs on all continents. And it is definitely a big project with the intention of making freestyle more popular. I am very happy with that and I can’t wait to make my debut in April in Paris, “said Arjun, who should represent the G generation at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh later this year.
For Arjun, the Freestyle chess event in Paris will be an opportunity for him to bounce back after a disappointing year. Although he beat Carlsen as well as Fabiano Caruana, world n ° 4, during an online event in January, Arjun would undergo a disappointing race in the 87th Tata steel chess tournament at Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands.
Arjun finished 10th out of 14 competitors – including five of which were Indian – in the “Masters” section of the prestigious tournament. What was worse was that he failed to win a single match in the first 11 rounds, losing four of these games, especially against Praggnanandhaa.
He signed a summit by beating Uzbekistan GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Gukesh in the last two laps, refusing to the latter the chance to be crowned champion in finishing at the top of the ranking. For Arjun, however, the two victories at the end did not matter other than improving a slightly better “horrible tournament”.
“A good finish definitely makes a horrible tournament a little better, but that does not mean that it makes a good one. It is still a very bad tournament. And I have a lot of learning and I will work on it and try to improve them. The first half of the tournament was very difficult, ”added Arjun.
“ Simply the best year we had for failures ”
Indian failures undoubtedly experienced its greatest year in 2024 with the “Golden Generation” – including the Trio of Gukesh, Arjun and Praggnanandhaa among others – drawing like a unit and collecting awards in the form of extraordinary achievements.
De Gukesh becoming the youngest world champion as well as the youngest winner in the history of the candidates tournament in India to make the history of Olympiad of chess by winning gold in the open air as well as women’s sections.
The year has also seen Koneru Humpy, which has become that the second player to be crowned with the world rapid champion and Arjun Erigaisi join the legendary Viswanathan Anandians as the only Indians to obtain an Elo note from 2800.
According to Arjun, even carrying out one of these achievements made of the special year for Indian failures, and for them to occur in a period of 365 days is something that little would have dreamed of.
“I think it’s just the best year we had for failures. First, Gukesh won the candidates. First, three Indians being candidates for men and two among women. And one of them winning the candidates. Then win the match later (VS Ding Liren) and become the youngest world champion.
“And also the Indian teams for men and women winning gold in Olympiad. Then Humpy winning the world quickly towards the end of the year. So, as all this is very difficult even if they had to occur in different years and now they all occur in the same year. So yes, it’s clearly the best, “said Arjun.
Arjun had played an important role in some of these extraordinary events, including the 45th Olympiad in Budapest, where he was the only one of the “Open” Indian team to participate in all rounds and also won gold at edge 3.
Arjun is thinking about camaraderie in the Historic Olympiad countryside
Reminating the historic campaign of Olympiad in the Hungarian capital, Arjun spoke of the friendly camaraderie that existed between him, Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, as well as the grandmother senior empties Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna and the captain without play Srinath Narayan.
“We all shared a very friendly camaraderie. We liked to share the positive moments after the match, as at the end of the day. And before the start of the event itself, we made this decision that we will not talk about negative moments because we do not want negative vibrations.
“And, but fortunately, as there were no negative moments to speak even, so it’s just the best scenario,” said Arjun.
However, any mention of the “gold generation” of Indian failures would be incomplete without granting the merit of the legendary Anand – the first Grand Master of India who also happens to be a five -time world champion, a former n ° 1 of the world and man largely credited to have shaped the current stars.
“Not only do I Gukesh, Pragg, but most people of our generation in India, whenever we start failures, this is the first name we hear. And we have the impression that we want to become like him, and we take sport. And some of us want to become very large, some of us to a certain extent, etc.
“He definitely has an influence on an entire generation. At one point, we also played training games and was very useful, “said Warangal’s 21 -year -old, Telangana.
As for the way in which his career has progressed so far and his immediate and long -term objectives, Arjun firmly insists that the note of 2800 that he had made recently will not mean anything if it does not translate into titles.
For the moment, his attention seems to be fixed on the qualifications for candidates next year, in addition to shining in the Esports World Cup later this year.
“I think it is no longer notes. It’s about like the titles. So, for this year, it will be to try to qualify for the candidates. And after that, to try to win it and qualify for the world championship and try to become world champion. This is the ultimate goal. So this is a step at a time, ”said Arjun.
