Arjun Erigaisi achieves historic feat with bronze medal at World Blitz Championship, matches Viswanathan Anand

Arjun Erigaisi topped away a thought-provoking twelvemonth for himself in cheat with a warm finish at the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Doha, Qatar, as he backed up his bronze medal in the rapid event with yet another third-place finish in the blitz category.

Erigaisi fell to Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the semifinal round, but did enough to finish with podium finishes in both legs of this tournament in the Middle East. In doing so, he becomes only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to earn medals in both rounds of the Rapid and Blitz Championship, with the legendary Indian grandmaster having accomplished the feat with rapid gold and blitz bronze in Riyadh 2017.

Erigaisi registered a big win against eventual champion Magnus Carlsen in the round-robin stage of the Blitz championship, with the Norwegian grandmaster growing frustrated and slamming the table in a moment reminiscent of his loss to another Indian GM in Gukesh D earlier this year.

Erigaisi therefore finished top of the pile after 19 rounds in the round-robin with 15 total points, leading with 12 wins, six draws, and a solitary loss. He had beaten Abdusattorov in the league stage, but fell to him in the knockouts, as he failed to convert an advantage with the white pieces in the opening game of the semi-final. The Uzbek GM was clinical with the white pieces himself in the next game, and then closed out the tie with a lockdown draw in the third game to take the series 2.5-0.5.

In the other semifinal, Carlsen beat American GM Fabiano Caruana. He went on to gold medal in both Rapid and Blitz for the fifth time in his career by beating Abusattorov in a tough encounter which went all the way to the fourth and final game, comprehensively won by Carlsen. Overall, this was Carlsen’s eighth victory in the Blitz Championships since the tournament’s re-formatting in 2012, to go with his six wins in the Rapid format.

While Erigaisi struggled in the Classical format through the year, failing to reach the Candidates tournament that would allow him a bid at the World Championship and following that up with a disappointing quarterfinal exit at the Chess World Cup in Goa earlier this winter, this win under time control will provide confidence to a generation of Indian GMs who have historically struggled with the fast chess formats.

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