Now, Arjun Erigaisi gets a win against Magnus Carlsen

R Praggnanandhaa has defeated Magnus Carlsen thrice this year. On Saturday night, it was the turn of another talented Indian teenager, Arjun Erigaisi, to get the better of the reigning five-time world champion. In the seventh round of Aimchess Rapid–an online rapid tournament–Erigaisi beat the Norwegian for the first time in his burgeoning career, in 54 moves. Viswanathan Anand and P Harikrishna are the only other Indians to have defeated Carlsen.

Last month, Erigaisi had run into a red-hot Carlsen in the final of the Julius Baer Generation Cup. Over two matches, Carlsen had absolutely no trouble in dispatching the 19-year-old from Telangana–notching up a 2.5-1.5 victory in the first game and a 2-0 win in the second.

But as these young Indian players keep showing time and again, they aren’t overawed by the prospect of facing the world’s best. Erigaisi may not attract eyeballs like Praggnanandhaa and D Gukesh do, but he’s displayed in recent months that he’s as good as the teen duo from Chennai.

Playing with black pieces, Carlsen responded with the Pirc defence to Erigaisi’s queen pawn opening. Erigaisi held his ground, eventually gaining advantage after the world champion moved his rook to b8 on his 26th move.

From thereon, he managed to stay ahead even after Carlsen initiated an exchange of queens in his 33rd move. In the endgame, the players were left with opposite-coloured bishops, but Carlsen resigned once he realised Erigaisi’s pawns were in prime position for promotion.

“I’m very happy that I won but to be honest Magnus was playing way better in the Generation Cup,” Erigaisi said. “There’s a lot of difference between a super motivated Magnus and Magnus. Nevertheless, beating Magnus is special, especially after the one-sided final (in the Generation Cup).”

Erigaisi hopes he can build on the confidence gained from the win.

“Since this was not a match win but just one game, I wouldn’t rank it at the very top but I’m hoping it is going to give me a lot of confidence. Maybe it can be judged from the way I play against him the next time. If my quality doesn’t drop like it did in the Generation Cup, it would probably say something,” he added.

Erigaisi has had a memorable year. While he was not part of the India B team that won the bronze medal in the open section of the 44th Chess Olympiad in Mahabalipuram in July-August, his own run was faultless. He registered a score of 8.5/11, going unbeaten through the tournament and winning individual silver on the third board. He also crossed an ELO rating of 2700 for the first time in his career. In the Julius Baer Generation Cup, Erigaisi defeated the likes of Levon Aronian, Hans Niemann and Vasyl Ivanchuk. Over the past 12 months, Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh too have made significant progress.

Erigaisi wants to stay grounded and keep working on his game. “It’s quite evident that Indian youngsters are growing quickly, but honestly I would consider it a real victory when I beat him in a match format and when he’s at his absolute best,” he said.

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