GITA WISDOM GUIDES THIS ARJUN TOO

Ahead of the Chess Olympiad, which begins in Budapest on Tuesday, Erigaisi talks about his journey, goals and more...

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A CRUSHING positional victory without giving any chance to a strong opponent hailing from the topseeded US and with it, waltzing past the 2700 Elo mark. That's how the last Chess Olympiad, held in Tamil Nadu's Mamallapuram in 2022, ended for Warangal boy Arjun Erigaisi. While Arjun bagged an individual silver medal on board 3, his India A team finished fourth, narrowly missing a medal. A couple of years older and a much improved chess player now, Arjun - currently the world No.4 and India's No.1 chess player ahead of Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Viswanathan Anand would hope to do even better in the Budapest Chess Olympiad that begins on Tuesday.

Speaking at TNIE's latest edition of Hyderabad Dialogues before the event, the 20-year-old prodigy from Warangal spoke about how he loves team tournaments and the camaraderie that would help India in the upcoming Olympiad. Unlike the last Olympiad where he set a target of 8.5/11 and went on to achieve it, this Arjun is more mature and realises that it would only increase the pressure on him. He's not just better at chess, he has learnt meditation techniques now.