For a few weeks now, especially since the end of the 2024 Chess Olympiad, the Indian duo of Gukesh D, and Arjun Erigaisi have been on a mission of their own. That being crossing the coveted 2800 mark in Classical Chess. On Thursday, Arjun Erigaisi came closer to the 2800 mark than he had ever come before. In fact, at the start of the day, a win in Classical chess would have guaranteed him the 2800 ELO in Classical Chess.
Standing in his way was the extremely tricky Grandmaster, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Playing in the Final of the 2024 WR Chess Masters Cup, the 21-year-old Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi won the finals in Armageddon making him the winner of the £20 K top prize along with 27.84 FIDE Circuit Points. With the 2800 mark in his mind all along, Erigaisi started off his two classical games looking for the win but MVL’s tricks kept on coming and in the end, they had to settle for a draw in both games. This time around, Arjun did not make the same mistake he had made against the 15-year-old Turkish Chess Prodigy, Ediz Gurel and pushed on for the win when it wasn’t necessary.
But instead, he kept on playing Positive chess always looking for openings and checks without gambling too much. MVL kept on applying pressure but to no avail, as Arjun was always defensively fine. The first game where Arjun was playing with black was quite uneventful, with Arjun employing the French Defense. In the second game, the Najdorf variation was played by Vachier-Lagrave, something that hadn’t failed him in London up till that point. The position suddenly got really complicated after that but in the end fizzed out in a draw.
Now with hopes of 2800 gone for the day and Arjun’s eagerness to win tripled since the start of the day, Armageddon was to decide the winner. And in what was a surprise, it was actually Arjun Erigaisi who won the bid of 6.58, which by his own admission was a bit lower than what he could’ve gone for. Maxime never made uncomfortable on the board or on time pressure throughout the tie-breaker and Arjun took advantage of this to flip the position in his favour and actually managed to beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to win the 2024 WR Chess Masters Cup in the Langham Hotel, London.
For those who might think MVL was an easy opposition, that’s not quite true. As the French Grandmaster had only recently beaten Magnus Carlsen in Armageddon at the Crunchlabs Masters (Division 1). Moreover, he was unbeaten in Armageddon at the WR Chess Masters Cup as well, that is, until he matched up with Arjun Erigaisi.
The 2800 is right around the corner and the world knows it. It’s just a matter of time before Arjun Erigaisi claims to become the third youngest to ever get there.
