‘Chess. Now that’s a game of kings. Civilized. Strategic’
– Andy
‘and a total fucking mystery’
– Red
One way to describe Arjun Erigaisi would be to quote Ellis Boyd Redding,
‘He had a quiet way about him, a walk and a talk that just wasn’t normal around here. He strolled, like a man in a park without a care or a worry in the world, like he had on an invisible coat that would shield him from this place.’
His nonchalance, and carefree attitude and of course his chess, makes him well; him.
Who Am I?
I reckon proper introductions are in order. I write for the sake of writing. It is my catharsis for the daily grind, my business, my aspirations and my dreams.
I am your average spectator. The movie goer who buys the upper stall when he could not afford the balcony. The man who fills the cheap seats in the back. One of the masses who enjoys life for what it is. A bird watcher who watches birds for their flights of beauty and not the anatomy of their pectoral muscles.
I am entertained by a finely crafted cover drive, a la Sachin Tendulkar, without being a badger, or when David Beckham would invariably bend it like Beckham.
I also happen to love the game of chess. I am not particularly good at it, but we go a long way and I find joy in it, for me it Chess is art, and like all art, it is subjective,
The knight sacrifice by TAL in game 6,
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1032537
or the knight sacrifice by Anand in the endgame,
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1510508
a purist will not like it as much as this spectator would, and this is who I am. Simply a man who has learnt to stop and smell the roses.
But why Erigaisi?
Here is Fabiano, about two years ago, even he picks Arjun,
It is at 4:00, but do watch the whole video if you can.
But I like the boy for his gumption and his attitude towards the game and how for the past two years he played open tournaments and picked Grand Masters as a slave picking cotton in Louisiana before President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
Relentlessly that is.
The world of chess would be abuzz and awash by paeans sung in honor of Gukesh Dommaraju. Fingers crossed there.
Since the day Anand challenged Kasparov atop the World Trade Center in 1995. The match I followed through the newspaper, but not only that, I procured a slab of marble from an ongoing construction work in our hostel, drew a board on it – green and yellow, notated and recreate the games with fellow chess nincompoops.
I have been an avid fan and follower of the game, and for my blog I would be profiling people I admire and those I have immensely learnt from and especially those who have filled us with joy with their art, music, writing and sport.
Arjun Erigaisi is one such being.
‘Arjun is just a complete mad man at the board’
– Magnus Carlsen
For the last two years, I have been slightly disappointed by absence of Arjun in major Chess Tournaments, but the man had plans of his own and he played any and every Open and Closed tournament he could, and farmed Grandmaster and non-grandmaster alike, and reached to the peak where he did.
And I do see him playing not only Candidates but also a World Chess Championship, hopefully the next one. Although I am not a prophet, I have proven to be prescient every once in a while, this could be one of those moments.
For the Love of the Game
Not to say that others do not have love it as much as my man Arjun, but the way he goes about playing the game, creating chances where none existed, and probably committing hara-kiri where the game could have drawn (against Aravindh, Chennai Grand Masters, 2024)
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2800581
And there are countless games of his, where he has drawn water from the stone, taken his opponent into a dark alley and murdered them. This also makes him one of the favourite of all the GMs and super GMS out there, and spectators like me.
As I had mentioned earlier, I am not a purist, I don’t delve into the lines, I do not care about the dynamics, positional aspects, or the preparation, I am the man who applauds the outcome, takes joy in their victory and expresses sorrow in their defeat.
So, I hope to see him become the World Chess Champion someday and best of the luck to this young man who is going to thrill us over the board for years to come.