In the 43 seconds that it takes Arjun Erigaisi to make up his mind and deliver the coup de grace on Levon Aronian’s FIDE World Cup campaign, you can trace exactly what stage the Indian prodigy’s thought process is at. First, comes the disbelief as his hand takes refuge in his hair thinking whether his opponent could have really blundered this evidently. Then, comes the hesitation as Arjun, arm outstretched over the board like a puppet master, wonders if there is some vicious optical illusion on the board that is playing tricks on him and is making him believe he’s about to enter the quarter-finals of the FIDE World Cup.
After those 43 seconds, when Arjun finally hops his knight to f3 (38… Nh3), even Aronian smiles before offering his resignation.
“It was a cute trick,” says Arjun describing a move that has as much flash as an Aronian shirt; a move that could have been defended, but not without the American having to give up significant material just to survive.
INTERACTIVE: How Arjun Erigaisi beat Levon Aronian
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The result means that Arjun is now two match wins away from a spot in the Candidates, two years after the heartbreak of Toronto 2024.
Chasing a Candidates spot in the previous cycle, he had narrowly missed out on qualifying. What would have made the ache worse was seeing others of his generation like D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa qualify for their first Candidates. Gukesh had then gone on to win the event, and then become world champion as well. Over the last few years, both Gukesh and Pragg have become household names in India, even outside chess circles. While their fame has detonated, Arjun is someone who currently has the admiration of those who understand the sport’s nuances.
After that failure to qualify for the Candidates, Arjun had told The Indian Express that he was employing a new philosophy for his chess.
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“I desperately cared about qualifying for the Candidates. I had so much attachment to it. Because of that, my nerves kept failing me at critical moments,” Arjun had said in June last year right after he had become world no 4 in the real-time ratings. “So I’ve been trying not to care too much (about things like becoming world no 4). That’s been helping me. It is a conscious decision not to care too much about results.”
At the ongoing FIDE World Cup, Arjun’s nerves have not betrayed him once. While other top seeds like Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Anish Giri and Vincent Keymer have been sent home early, Arjun has played some fighting, attack-minded chess, exemplified by his refusal to accept Aronian’s draw offer on Saturday on move 31 when neither player had an edge.
“I think I would accept the draw,” Koneru Humpy, who was in the live stream commentary for ChessBase India, said while Arjun contemplated whether to accept his opponent’s offer and then take his chances in the tiebreaks on Sunday. “If I was in Arjun’s place, I would have believed in my rapid skills (in the tiebreaks).”
But the 22-year old from Warangal’s mentality to seek a fight had even impressed Magnus Carlsen, who had christened him a ‘mad man’.
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“Arjun is just a complete mad man at the board. He wants to kill you in every single game. Has crazy preparation and plays extremely ambitiously and that’s what makes him very dangerous,” Carlsen had told Express last May.
On Saturday, Arjun drew confidence from the fact that his opponent was happy to end the game in a draw.
“It was a tense middle game, I wasn’t able to understand if I was better or worse. But then once after knight to e3 (move 31) he offered a draw. That offer gave me some confidence to play for a win because I knew he was happy with just a draw. It meant he was not feeling ambitious. So I pushed,” Arjun said in a press conference after his win.
In two successive rounds, Arjun has defeated two legends of the sport, both from Viswanathan Anand’s vintage who were unlucky not to become world champions. Before his takedown of two-time World Cup champion Aronian, Arjun beat Peter Leko in round 4. Granted, Leko is semi-retired and was playing his first individual tournament in six years. But he has been working as a coach to top star Vincent Keymer so his chess is hardly rusty. Leko fought Vladimir Kramnik in the 2004 World Championship and then helped Anand as a second in a few world championship battles.
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Both Leko and Aronian have gushed about the pleasure of facing Arjun over the board, a rare display of affection in a sport like chess. Leko called it a “privilege”, while Aronian called himself a “big Arjun fan.”
The rest of the country could soon find out why.
How Arjun Erigaisi defeated Levon Aronian after rejecting his draw offer
How Arjun Erigaisi refused Levon Aronian’s draw offer and then defeated chess legend. (GIF courtesy: Lichess)
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d3 a5 6. O-O d6 7. Re1 O-O 8. Nbd2 Be6 9. Bb5 Ba7 10. Nf1 Ne7 11. d4 Ng6 12. Ng3 c6 13. Bf1 Bg4 14. Be3 exd4 15. cxd4 d5 16. e5 Ne8 17. Be2 f6 18. exf6 Nxf6 19. Qb3 Bxf3 20. Bxf3 Qd7 21. Rad1 h6 22. Be2 Rae8 23. Bd3 Nh4 24. f3 Nh7 25. Bb1 Ng5 26. Qc2 g6 27. Kh1 Qf7 28. Qf2 Bb8 29. Nf1 Nf5 30. Bd2 Bc7 31. Ne3 Nxe3 32. Bxe3 Kg7 33. Qf1 Re6 34. Bg1 Rfe8 35. Rxe6 Rxe6 36. a3 h5 37. Qf2 Qf4 38. Re1 Nh3
