Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Tactic Missed
Arjun Erigaisi (born 2003) is an Indian GM who, together with Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin and Aditya Mittal, form the new generation of Indian GMs born in the period 2003-2006.
Erigaisi began to attract attention in 2022 because of his excellent results in the international arena. In January he won the 2022 Tata Steel Challengers scoring 10.5/13 with two full points ahead of the runner-up. He became India’s chess champion two months later. In June, he won the 2022 Junior Speed Chess Championship organized by chess.com. Arjun was the clear winner of the Abu Dhabi Chess Festival in August scoring 7,5/9. The same month, he took part in the 44 Chess Olympiad (Chennai, India) as part of India’s A-team. Despite being the youngest player in the team, he scored an impressive score of 8.5/11.
In 2024 he played in the Menorca Open held on the Spanish Balearic island of Menorca from 2 to 7/April. The event was outstanding in terms of participation. A total of 284 players participated in the main section Among them, 44 grandmasters. And 33 players came from India.
Arjun Erigaisi, Kirill Alekseenko and Maksim Chigaev finished tied with the same score of 7,5/9. However, the tiebreak favored Arjun who emerged as the winner.
In round 4, Erigaisi beat the German IM Roven Vogel. The following position corresponds to that game, where Arjun missed a tactic that could have given him an advantageous endgame. Can you find it?
Thanks to his victory in Menorca, Erigaisi’s live rating climbed to ELO 2761. As a result, he took the seventh position in the world ranking and became the highest-rated Indian GM, ahead of Indian legend Vishy Anand and rising star Gukesh D.
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