Arjun Erigaisi pips Fabiano Caruana to become No. 3 in world

Warangal's wonder boy, Arjun Erigaisi, is nothing but an unstoppable machine while moving his pawns and pieces on the 64 squares. He just can't stop winning. In the final round, he gave India the lead with a quick 49-move win over Slovenia's Jan Subel for his ninth victory in the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary.

Despite being the highest rated Indian player at 2778 Elo, he was made to play on the third board, making him the monster for his opponents. Like Divya Deshmukh, he not only played all the 11 games but delivered on his way to lead India to a memorable triumph. Of the 11 games that Arjun played, he won nine rounds and drew twice to remain unbeaten while performing at a rating as high as 2968 Elo.

On India's incredible run, Arjun said, "I think we were all in good shape, which helped us. During the entire 11 rounds, we had things under our control which we never lost. As a team, we did really well. In a team tournament, while it is necessary that all the players are strong and in good form, team spirit is also an important factor, which we enjoyed."

In the live rating, Arjun achieved a career-high World No.3 position, and at 2797.2 Elo, he overtook America's Fabiano Caruana. In the 11-round Olympiad, Arjun garnered a total of 19.2 rating points. For getting the better of American GM Dominguez Perez Leinier in the penultimate round, Arjun earned the maximum 4.6 rating points to emerge as the new No.3 in the world. He is just 2.8 points away from touching the 2800 Elo - a dream of every chess player.

When the FIDE presenter asked Arjun about the 2800 at the end of the ninth round when he outplayed Uzbekistan's 2650 Elo GM Vokhidov Shamsiddin, the India No.1 had said, "I am not really thinking about it (2800). I am just trying to focus on this tournament and thinking of just one game at a time."


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