Indian chess has been reaping the rewards of putting in the hard yards in nurturing its next generation of superstars, with the likes of D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa establishing themselves among the the sport’s elite with their incredible feats over the course of the last couple of years.
However, while India’s golden generation certainly has made its presence felt in the Classical format with the aforementioned names among the top 10 in the latest FIDE ratings, the same cannot be said for Freestyle Chess, a.k.a. Fischer Random or Chess960, which some believe is the future of the sport.
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The inaugural Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, after all, has successfully hosted two events – in Weissenhaus and Paris with the second one concluding on Monday. Leading names such as Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana and the relatively unfancied Vincent Keymer are among those who have gone the distance in the two events with Keymer and Carlsen emerging as the winners in Weissenhaus and Paris respectively.
The Indians, meanwhile, have largely underwhelmed despite the weight of expectations on their shoulders. That they remain a force to be reckoned with in the Classical format was there for the world to see at the Tata Steel Chess in Wijk Aan Zee in Netherlands, where Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh finished first and second respectively. A month later, Aravindh Chithambaram would announce himself before the world by winning the Prague Masters ahead of Pragg and other leading names such as Anish Giri and Wei Yi.
Gukesh yet to master Freestyle Chess as Indians largely underwhelm in Paris
Gukesh had nearly won the Tata Steel Chess event a little over a month after becoming the youngest world champion in chess history, and had arrived in Weissenhaus with the spotlight as much on him as it was on Carlsen, Nakamura, Caruana and others. The 18-year-old, however, ended up finishing 8th out of 10 competitors, failing to win a single match throughout the event.
Fast forward two months later, and while Gukesh did finally open his account in the victories column in the Paris leg, defeating compatriots Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa as well as Keymer – who was part of his team at the World Championship in Singapore.
And yet, things went from bad to worse for the teen superstar as he failed to qualify for the quarter-finals and lost his 9th-12th classification game against Hungarian GM Richard Rapport to finish joint-11th with fellow Indian Vidit Gujrathi, who had a forgettable time in the ‘City of Light’ days after getting hitched.
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Praggnanandhaa fared only slightly better than Gukesh and Gujrathi, as he managed to end things on a happy note by beating Rapport in their ninth-place playoff on Saturday. However, the fact that four Indians were participating in the Paris leg had raised hopes of at least one of them reaching the semi-finals, and possibly squaring off in the final. That three of them finished among the bottom four certainly isn’t a good look at all.
Gukesh went as far to admit that he had a confidence problem in the format – in which the pieces on the back rank are assembled randomly and made known to the players 10 minutes before the start of a game.
“I’m very glad that he’s (Keymer) doing very well in Freestyle. I think it’s partly about the confidence. He did so well in Weissenhaus. So it’s always nice to have this kind of confidence that you can again do well. I think that’s also partly what I have been struggling with that I’m not as confident in Freestyle as in the other formats,” Gukesh had said in a chat on Chess.com’s live stream of the Paris Grand Slam recently.
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Erigaisi offers hope on debut
It wasn’t all doom-and-gloom for the Indian contingent in Paris though. While Gukesh has had his struggles in other formats, with Standard chess being his comfort zone, Erigaisi – who sits one place below Gukesh in the FIDE ratings at fourth – has exhibited a lot more adaptability when it comes to the more fast-paced rapid and blitz formats.
And in his maiden appearance in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in the French capital, Erigaisi took to the unpredictable format almost like duck to water. The 21-year-old was the only Indian to finish among the top four at the end of the round-robin stage, finishing at the fourth spot with 6.5 points, collecting five wins along the way including against eventual champion Carlsen and Weissenhaus finalists Caruana and Keymer.
What also stood out in Erigaisi’s performance in Paris was his never-say-die attitude as well as his remarkable composure. The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, after all, monitors the heart-rates of players during games and Arjun, for one, was consistently among the calmest players in action with a bpm in the 70s for the most part and even in the 60s occasionally.
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And just like Gukesh in his memorable triumph over Ding, Erigaisi exhibited the kind of steely resolve that highlighted why he is among the top players in the world today. After suffering a heart-breaking loss in Game 2 of his quarter-final against Nakamura, the Indian GM found himself 0-1 down against Ian Nepomniachtchi in their 5th-8th place playoff on Friday.
Erigaisi, however, bounced back in style the following day, winning the second Standard game in just 24 moves to level the scores before seizing the lead in the first rapid tie-break game before sealing his victory over the Russian GM with a draw.
He would then collect a third win in four games by outclassing Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in Game 1 of their fifth-place playoff before staving off a spirited challenge from the Frenchman to collect a stalemate on the final day of the event.
Erigaisi was the only one to carry the Indian flag in the last two days of the event, and his performances in Paris suggest that while his compatriots might take their time to catch up with the curveball that is Fischer Random, he is someone who pose a major threat in the remaining events of the Grand Slam Tour, starting with Las Vegas in July.
