Arjun Erigaisi pocketed a cool $50,000 (roughly Rs 43 lakh) after ending fifth on the Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour on Monday. Arjun defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave within the playoff for the fifth spot after defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi within the earlier classification recreation. Arjun had misplaced to Hikaru Nakamura within the quarter-finals. Nakamura misplaced within the remaining on Monday to world no 1 Magnus Carlsen, who took house $200,000 (roughly Rs 1.7 crore) for ending on prime in Paris.
Arjun was the most effective finisher among the many 4 Indians in motion within the 12-player area. The others have been Arjun’s teammates from the Chess Olympiad gold medal successful Indian staff: Praggnanandhaa (who ended ninth), world champion Gukesh and Vidit Gujrathi (each of whom shared final spot within the occasion).
“This is likely one of the most enjoyable tournaments I’ve had in the previous few years,” Arjun informed Chessbase India after his win over Vachier-Lagrave.
When requested why that was, he stated: “No stress. It was very straightforward to play.”
Like Carlsen, Arjun will now head to Grenke to compete in one other freestyle occasion from Friday. The Grenke occasion will probably be an open event the place gamers will play two classical video games per day.
Whereas Ian Nepomniachtchi was amongst those that grumbled at being made to play classification matches for the fifth to eighth place on the Freestyle Chess occasion after dropping out on a spot within the semi-finals, Arjun was glad to get some video games in.
“It was disappointing to not be capable of play for first spot, nevertheless it’s follow for different freestyle tournaments. So I wouldn’t name it irritating,” Arjun informed the official broadcaster of the occasion after beating his French opponent.
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“Dropping to Hikaru was disappointing as a result of I bought a greater place out of the opening in each video games. After dropping the primary recreation to Nepo, I used to be not so optimistic,” admitted Arjun.
