London. Grand Master Arjun Erigaisi has done something amazing which no Indian chess player could do till date. Arjun managed to win the WR Chess Masters Cup by defeating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in Armageddon. This victory gave him 27.84 FIDE Circuit points along with a top prize of £20,000. But he missed out on crossing 2800 points for the first time as his French opponent drew two in the classical game.
Arjun went into the final day in London knowing that a win in classical chess would take him above 2800 for the first time, but he also had another motivation. Noting that Vachier-Lagrave had drawn all of his Classical games but won three out of three Armageddons, Arjun explained his strategy, saying, “Basically I thought I should just finish it off in the Classical !”
However, the first game was a non-event. Arjun’s French Defense promised action, but instead the game turned into a draw in 30 moves. The second game was also eventually drawn, but 6.Be2 Najdorf soon became very complicated. Both players were in their element, but they also maintained admirable control, so that a peaceful outcome seemed entirely fair.
The action turned into Armageddon, with players bidding for the lowest amount of time to play with Black and only needing a draw. “I thought 10 versus seven would be good, and if he picks seven I wanted to keep it a little lower,” Arjun said of his move of six minutes, 58 seconds. And then he chose 7.48… so did I go a little low?”
Arjun could have gone higher and still won, but for what happened next, it was difficult to criticize his decision. His selection of rock-solid Petroff defense worked perfectly, with Vachier-Lagrave maintaining their advantage on the clock but never getting ahead on the boards. One last mistake ended any remaining hope and the French player abandoned the game.
The win also increases Arjun’s chances of qualifying for the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament through the FIDE circuit, given the 27.84 points he has earned (the average rating of the top eight players) and clearly finishing first. That’s more points than he earned for any event in 2024, except for GM Alireza Firozha’s 28.67 points, who won the Sinquefield Cup (GM Gukesh Domaraju earned 26.94 points to win the Candidates).
Arjun is the first player to win the most events, with seven, and will now overtake GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (92.02 points) to take the top spot with 105.23 points, but Firouzja and Caruana remain within striking distance despite playing fewer events. Are. However, it is not like Arjun will stop his marathon as he is now heading to Vranjka Banja in Serbia for the European Club Cup starting on Sunday.
