GM Arjun Erigaisi as soon as once more proved unstoppable as he dominated the Stepan Avagyan Memorial 2024 which befell in Jermuk, Armenia from June 10-18. New analysis reveals solely two gamers can match his meteoric rise to the world’s elite, however the Indian 20-year-old says he is stopped being attentive to scores and rankings.
Simply over every week after Chess.com highlighted Arjun’s outstanding ascent to world quantity 4, the Indian star as soon as once more proved that the format is irrelevant—he merely wins anyway.
The sphere in Armenia included robust grandmasters ranked among the many world’s prime 50, however Arjun received 4 video games and completed on an undefeated 6.5/9, some extent and a half away from GMs Sam Sevian, Amin Tabatabaei and Bogdan-Daniel Deac.
The triumph provides to Arjun’s spectacular streak, incomes him eight score factors, along with the ten factors added within the French Group Championship. Which means the 20-year-old is ready to be rated 2778 on FIDE’s July listing, positioning him behind solely GMs Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, and Fabiano Caruana.
Talking to Chess.com, Arjun shared, with a smile: “To be trustworthy, I finished caring in regards to the scores and rankings. I don’t actually care that a lot about being within the prime 5 both.”
To be trustworthy, I finished caring in regards to the scores and rankings. I don’t actually care that a lot about being within the prime 5 both.
—Arjun Erigaisi
The Indian described profitable his second match of the 12 months as “good,” and talked about he’s now taking a break from classical chess till the 2024 Chess Olympiad, which begins in Budapest, Hungary on September 11.
“It clearly feels good and I’ve a fairly lengthy break from classical. I’ll make certain to make use of this time to enhance my sport and do properly after I get again in September,” he mentioned. The Indian crew for the Olympiad is ready to be introduced subsequent week, and Arjun’s inclusion is anticipated.
The 20-year-old’s rise over the previous 12 months has been nothing in need of extraordinary. In 12 of his final 13 tournaments he gained score factors, dropping factors solely within the Sharjah Masters (1.2 factors).
In line with Chess.com’s analysis, solely two gamers above 2700 can match Arjun’s 68-point score enhance in 12 months. In 2015/16 GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave gained 88 factors to go from 2731 to 2819, whereas a 17-year-old Carlsen jumped 72 factors from 2714 to 2786 in 2007/8.
Shocked by the statistic that reveals he’s positioned third, Arjun mentioned: “Wow, I didn’t learn about that! Caring much less and fewer in regards to the outcomes actually does appear to be serving to!”
Caring much less and fewer in regards to the outcomes actually does appear to be serving to!
—Arjun Erigaisi
He recounted his solely loss in a classical sport this 12 months, towards GM Bu Xiangzhi within the Shenzhen Masters: “I used to be actually pissed off for the following half-hour to 1 hour, however then I moved on and it had no impact on me for the following sport. I went on to beat Anish Giri in a sophisticated sport with Black!”
Arjun has persistently performed occasions as the highest seed this 12 months, going through a median opposition of “solely” 2630 in his 34 classical video games in 2024. Nonetheless, he would not really feel he has truly taken any dangers: “If I’m capable of keep my degree persistently, I ought to be capable to do properly towards the dangers. I feel any 2750+ participant, if he performs at his degree persistently, is able to doing very properly towards sub-2650 opposition.”
His 2761 score meant that he was the clear favourite within the 10-player round-robin occasion in Jermuk, however the discipline of grandmasters was certainly not a pushover. Along with Sevian, Tabatabaei, and Deac, Arjun additionally confronted Armenia’s new era of GMs Shant Sargsyan, Robert Hovhannisyan, Haik Martirosyan, and Manuel Petrosyan. Russia’s 17-year-old hope GM Volodar Murzin and Germany’s GM Mathias Bluebaum accomplished the sphere.
However India’s number-one made his intentions clear from the beginning as he shot out of the blocks with 2/2. He duly punished Sargsyan’s endgame mistake. The sport is commented by Chess.com’s GM Rafael Leitao.
Arjun continued with three attracts, however then ruined the joy when he took Bluebaum’s king out for a stroll within the park.
The occasion had a excessive draw price of 78 %, and Martirosyan was the one different participant capable of win a couple of sport. Chess statistician Mehmet Ismali famous in a submit on his X/Twitter account that Deac was probably the most exact participant of the occasion primarily based on his Missed Factors index, which is a measure of the factors a participant misses in a sport as per the engine. The Romanian had a median of 0.05 missed factors per sport. Compared, Arjun averaged 0.20 missed factors per sport, much like Carlsen and Nakamura in current tournaments, indicating that his strategic dangers paid off.
Preliminary ideas on Arjun Erigaisi’s current success and a comparability of his stats with these from the most recent @NorwayChess match and with Nodirbek Abdusattorov, his major competitor for the FIDE circuit factors.
Arjun Erigaisi simply received the Stepan Avagyan Memorial with an… pic.twitter.com/I49u86thgU
— Mehmet Ismail (@drmehmetismail) June 18, 2024
Deac’s single win within the match was quick and candy.
Though Arjun missed out on qualifiying for the earlier world championship cycle, he stays a great contender to qualify for the 2026 Candidates, main the FIDE Circuit forward of GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
It is value noting that he already has six out of a possible seven outcomes counted, whereas Abdusattorov solely has 4.
Followers can sit up for seeing Arjun in motion on the Leon Masters, a four-player fast occasion in Spain with GMs Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, and Jaime Santos, from June 27 to July 1. Arjun additionally plans to take part within the World Fast and Blitz Group Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan from August 1-6.
