Arjun Kumar Erigaisi (born 3 September 2003) is an Indian

chess grandmaster Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally the t ...

. A

chess prodigy Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on a square board consisting of 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. The players, referred to ...

, he earned the title of grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 13 days. In September 2024 he became India's top rated player, and in December 2024 he achieved his peak rating of 2801 which makes him the fifteenth-highest rated player in history and second Indian ever to cross the 2800 threshold after

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion. ...

. He has sometimes been described as a 'madman' over the board for his bold and unpredictable style.

Early life and background

He was born into a Telugu family in

Warangal Warangal () is a city in the Indian state of Telangana and the district headquarters of Warangal district. It is the second largest city in Telangana with a population of 811,844 per 2011 Census of India, and spreading over an . Warangal serv ...

, Telangana. His father is a neurosurgeon and his mother is a housewife. He studied chess at the BS Chess Academy in

Hanamkonda Hanamakonda is a major city and the district headquarters of Hanamkonda district in the state of Telangana. It is about 150 KM away from the state Capital Hyderabad and about 7KM away from former district Head quarters Warangal. It is also one ...

. He was studying

data science Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, stru ...

until December 2021, before deciding to drop out of university during the first year to focus on his chess career.

Career

2015–2018

In 2015, Arjun won a silver medal in the 2015 Asian Youth Championship in Korea.

2021

2021 was a strong year for Arjun Erigaisi, as he became the first Indian to qualify to the Goldmoney Asian Rapid of the Champions Chess Tour 2021 ahead of

Alireza Firouzja Alireza Firouzja (, ; born 18 June 2003) is an Iranian and French Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Firouzja is the youngest player to have surpassed a FIDE Elo rating system, rating of 2800, beating the previous record set by Magnus Carls ...

, Daniil Dubov,

Peter Svidler Pyotr Veniaminovich Svidler (; born 17 June 1976), commonly known as Peter Svidler, is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and commentator who is an eight-time Russian Chess Champion. Svidler has competed in three World Championshi ...

and

Vidit Gujrathi Vidit Gujrathi (born 24 October 1994) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Gujrathi attained the title of grandmaster in January 2013, becoming the 30th player from India to do so. He is the fourth Indian player to have crossed the Elo rating of 27 ...

, only losing to

Levon Aronian Levon Grigori Aronian (; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenian chess grandmaster who has represented the United States since 2021. A chess prodigy, he earned the title of grandmaster in 2000, at the age of 17. He is a former world rapid and blit ...

in tie breaks in a hard-fought match. In October 2021, Arjun placed 2nd at the Junior U21 Round Table Open Chess Championship (Classical) held in Bulgaria. He scored 7/9, along with Alexey Sarana. In November 2021, Arjun placed 3rd out of 82 players in the Lindores Abbey Blitz Tournament at Riga ahead of players such as

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (; born 21 October 1990), often referred to by his initials, MVL, is a French Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster who is a former World Blitz Chess Championship, World Blitz Champion. With a peak Elo rating system, ra ...

, Levon Aronian, David Navara, Daniil Dubov, Peter Svidler and many others. Later that month, Arjun won the Rapid section of the Tata Steel India Chess Tournament (Rapid and Blitz). He scored 6½/9, ahead of Vidit Gujrathi, Levon Aronian, Sam Shankland and

Lê Quang Liêm Lê Quang Liêm (born 13 March 1991) is a Vietnamese chess grandmaster, the top-ranked of his country. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2006. Liêm won the Asian Chess Championship in 2019 and was the World Blitz Chess Champ ...

. He clinched the win by holding Levon Aronian to a draw in a losing position.

2022

In January 2022, Arjun won the Tata Steel Chess 2022 Challengers, qualifying him to play in the masters section in the next Tata Steel Chess tournament. His final score was 10½/13 and his TPR in the tournament was 2804, taking his

rating A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of a metric (e.g. quality, quantity, a combination of both,...). Rating or rating system may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness ...

to 2660, thereby breaking into the top 100. In March 2022, he was crowned the Indian National Champion by winning the 58th MPL National Championship of India 2022 with a score of 8½/11. Furthermore, in March Arjun won the 19th

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

Open, edging out

Gukesh Dommaraju Gukesh Dommaraju (born 29 May 2006) is an Indian chess grandmaster and the reigning World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, Gukesh is the youngest undisputed world champion, the youngest player to have surpassed a FIDE rating of 2750, doing s ...

and Harsha Bharathakoti on tie-break after all scored 8½/10. Between July and August 2022, Arjun played as board 3 for the India-1 team. He finished with a score of 8½/11 (+6−0=5), with the team finishing in 4th overall. In August 2022, Arjun won the 28th Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival with 7½/9 and a performance rating of 2893. In December 2022, Arjun won Tata Steel Chess India 2022 Blitz with 12½/18, which was his third victory in Tata Steel events to date.

2024

In April 2024, Arjun won Menorca Open A on superior tie-break score after he tied with 2 others with a score of 7½/9. In June 2024, Arjun won the Stepan Avagyan Memorial 2024 with a round to spare. In September 2024, Arjun took part in the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

as part of the Indian team. He was the only player in the Open section to score six straight wins in the first six rounds. He finished the event with 10 points in 11 rounds (+9−0=2). His performance rating of 2968 earned him an individual gold medal on board three, and helped India to win their first ever team gold medal at the Olympiad. In October 2024, Arjun won the 2024 WR Chess Masters Cup in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

by defeating

in an armageddon tiebreak in the final. In December 2024, Arjun crossed 2800 on the FIDE Ratings list, making him the 16th player ever in history to cross the mark.

2025

Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025 The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025 was the 87th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, annual chess tournament held in Wijk aan Zee. It was held from 17 January to 2 February 2025. The field of 14 players in the Masters section included the ...

, he finished 10th, scoring 5½/13 (+2−4=7). Between February 28 to March 14, Arjun managed to win all of the three Chess.com Freestyle Friday events held. He is the first Indian to win the event and the only player to win it three consecutive times. He was part of the team that won the World Rapid Chess Championship in London in June 2025.

Awards and recognition

Others

Sportstar ''Sportstar'' is an Indian monthly sports magazine published in India by the publishers of ''The Hindu''. Its headquarters is in Chennai. History and profile ''Sportstar'' was established in 1978. The magazine covers international sports, i ...

Emerging Hero Award: 2023 * TOISA Chess Player of the Year: 2021

References

External links

*
Arjun Erigaisi
ID card at the All India Chess Federation * *
Arjun Erigaisi
player profile at

Lichess Lichess (; ) is a free and open-source software, free and open-source Internet chess server run by a Nonprofit organization, non-profit organization of the same name. Users of the site can play online chess anonymously and optionally register an ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Erigaisi, Arjun 2003 births Living people People from Warangal Game players from Telangana Chess Grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Chess players at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in chess Medalists at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games silver medalists for India 21st-century Indian people 21st-century Indian chess players