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Joining the elite 2,800 rated chess players club will get Arjun Erigasi invites for really top chess tournaments as well as better appearance fees.
The ongoing 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary, could be Grandmaster and World Number 4 Arjun Erigasi's Olympiad.
At the end of the sixth round the 21 year old from Telangana has a perfect score and experts expect him to win all his remaining games.
That apart, the interesting question is whether Arjun will touch the 2800 ELO rating during the tournament.
While an ELO rating of 2,700 gets a chess player the Super GM tag, the 2,800 rating puts him in the top league.
Arjun has a rating of 2,791.3. Only three other players in the world are above him: Former world champion Magnus Carlsen (2,830.8), Fabiano Caruana (2,806.5) and Hikaru Nakamura (2,802).
Arjun began the Olympiad with a rating of 2,778 and added 13 valuable rating points with six consecutive wins.
"Arjun may score 100% on the third board in the 2024 Olympiad. I believe he will be close to a 100% score and close to 2800 ELO during the Olympiad," predicts GM Pravin Thipsay.
At the FIDE Chess Olympiad in Chennai in 2022, Arjun crossed the 2,700 rating and won silver for playing on the board three. He had scored 8.5 points out of 11 and remained undefeated in the Olympiad.
In December 2022, Arjun said his short term goal is to increase his rating to 2,750 points and it is not easy to go on increasing the rating upwards from 2,700 levels.
Nevertheless, he has been doing precisely that.
A minimum Elo rating of 2,700 is needed for a chess player to turn professional and make a livelihood out of chess.
The income may come from tournament appearance fees and cash prizes.
Joining the elite 2,800 rated chess players club will get Arjun invites for top four chess tournaments along with Carlsen, Caruana and Nakamura as well as better appearance fees.
Queried about Arjun's style of play, Thipsay says: "Tactically perfect, at least extremely accurate, always trying to avoid simplification, always trying to complicate."
On Arjun's shortcomings, Thipsay adds: "Strategically not as strong as the players at the top."
Arjun has been playing the Swiss League Tournament regularly.
"Fearlessly playing Swiss League Tournaments is the secret of keeping oneself aggressive and fit enough to face players of different strengths," says Thipsay.
In 2022, GMs D Gukesh, Arjun, Nihal Sarin played a lot of Swiss tournaments which benefitted them.
"The Olympiad is a Swiss League tournament and not being used to playing Swiss League tournaments can prove a great handicap in the Olympiad, even if you are Carlsen or Wesley So or Levon Aronian or World Champion Liren Ding," adds Thipsay.
For Arjun, a 2022 milestone was the inking of a five year $1.5 million sponsorship deal with the Singapore-based Quantbox Research. The deal removed a big financial worry from his mind and allowed him to focus on chess.
Arjun said the sponsorship has no conditions attached like an Elo rating to be achieved, tournaments to be won and others.
GM Srinath Narayanan is Arjun's coach and mentor. Arjun also works with Uzbek GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov.
Arjun's daily regime has him working on chess for 8 to 9 hours and an hour of physical exercise. He also plays tennis with his sister and father.
Arjun began playing chess with elder sister E Keerthana. His father Dr E Srinivas is a neurosurgeon while his mother E Jyothi manages the family hospital.
Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com