Tag Archives: Arjun Erigaisi

GLOBAL: SPORTS / CHESS: Two Indians in World Top five for the first time ever – Arjun Erigaisi World #3, Gukesh #5

India’s historic performance at the 45th Chess Olympiad 2024 caused a lot of huge changes in the rating list. Arjun Erigaisi is now World no.3. He gained 19.2 Elo rating points for his stellar performance on Board no.3. The World Championship Challenger, D Gukesh is now World no.5. He gained a whopping 30.1 Elo rating points. Both Arjun and Gukesh won double Gold. Vidit Gujrathi gained 6 rating points, Harikrishna 2.1. Currently, there are four Indians in top 12, five in top 22, six in top 33, seven in top 42 and eleven in top 98. Among the Women, four Indians maintain their top 15 places. IM Divya Deshmukh moved up to World no.11 and India no.2 among women after her fantastic double Gold medal winning run at the Olympiad. She crossed 2500 and her rating is now 2501. Another double Gold winning – IM Vantika Agrawal gained 22.1 and IM Tania Sachdev increased her rating by 10.2 points.

A fantastic month for the Indians, Divya Deshmukh crosses 2500, now India #2 among Women

September 2024 has been a fantastic month for the Indians. D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Tania Sachdev are the rating gainers. The highest gainer is Gukesh. Arjun Erigaisi climbed to World no.3. Two Indians in World Top five for the first time ever. Divya claiming the India no.2 spot among Women. Gukesh, Arjun, Divya and Vantika also won a double Gold at the 45th Chess Olympiad 2024.

Arjun Erigaisi, D Gukesh, Vishy Anand and R Praggnanandhaa stay in World top 12 | Source: FIDE

There are still eleven Indians in World Top 100 | Source: FIDE

Women: Four Indians stay in Top 15, Divya Deshmukh World no.11 and India no.2

Four Indian women maintain their place in top 15. IM Divya Deshmukh gained 17.5 Elo rating points at 45th Chess Olympiad 2024. Her stellar performance earned her an individual Gold on Board no.3. She also crossed 2500 and now has a rating of 2501. Her rank is now World no.11 and India no.2 among Women. IM Vantika Agrawal also won a double Gold at the 45th Olympiad. Her fantastic performance earned her an individual Gold on Board no.4 and she increased her Elo rating 22.1 points. Currently, there are nine Indians among the top 100 women.

Four Indians in World Top 15 among Women | Source: FIDE

Nine Indians are among World Top 100 Women | Source: FIDE

Countries

India is still no.2 in October FIDE Rating list in terms of average rating of top ten players, 13 Elo rating points behind the USA. The gap between USA and India got reduced from 19 to 11 from September to October.


Four Indians in World Top 15 among Women | Source: FIDE

source/content: chessbase.in (headline edited)

GLOBAL & NATIONAL: SPORTS / CHESS: 2022 should go down in History as India’s Greatest Ever in Chess

From hosting the Chess Olympiad to Praggnanandhaa beating world champion Magnus Carlsen, India enjoyed significant success at the sport this year.

Two female chess players, one 35 and the other 15 did India proud in the Kazakhstan city of Almaty at the fag end of the year. At the World rapid and blitz chess championship, Koneru Humpy won a silver and B. Savitha Shri a bronze.

A great year for Indian chess just became greater. The year 2022 should actually go down in history as India’s greatest ever.

Over the last couple of decades or so, India has enjoyed some significant successes — Viswanathan Anand won five World championships, the first of which came in 2000 — and virtually every year, there have been several causes to cheer about, but 2022 has been unique.

Significant moment

India doesn’t boast as many great talents in the women’s section as it does in the men’s. So when a 15-year-old Savitha wins a medal at an event as prestigious as the World rapid and blitz championship, after beginning as the 36th seed, it is a significant moment. As is the silver of Humpy, a former World rapid champion.

Earlier in December, another Indian woman brought much joy to Indian chess. R. Vaishali did that in the City of Joy, as she stunned a very strong field to take the blitz title in the Tata Steel Chess India tournament at Kolkata.

At the very tournament, in the open section, Nihal Sarin claimed the rapid title and Arjun Erigaisi the blitz. R. Praggnanandhaa and D. Gukesh, who complete the magnificent quartet of Indian teenagers, may have disappointed at Kolkata, but they too have had some exceptional results right through the year.

In fact, Gukesh’s outstanding performance for India-2 at the Chess Olympiad in Chennai — he won his first eight games on the trot en route to the gold on the top board — was one of the highlights of the year in world chess. And India swept the medals at the Olympiad, winning nine out of the 36 medals on offer.

The Olympiad was an organisational success too, thanks in no small measure to the active participation of the Tamil Nadu Government, which had only got just four months to conduct an event featuring more than 1700 participants from 186 countries. The Olympiad also helped chess become more mainstream in India.

With players like Praggnanandhaa consistently making news, by scoring stunning wins against the likes of World champion Magnus Carlsen, the game hit the headlines regularly. The year’s last ranking list has eight Indians in the world’s top 70.

The year also saw India continuing to win medals at the World age-group championships and promising teenagers like V. Pranav and Pranav Anand turning Grandmasters.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)