‘(Has) become little bit mental’

For a player who grew 63 rating points over the course of 2024 and barged into the elusive 2800-rating club, Arjun Erigaisi has had a lackluster Tata Steel chess event so far. After six rounds at Wijk aan Zee, India’s top-ranked chess player has been winless, losing three games. The 21-year-old has lost 21 rating points over the course of these six games, meaning he has squandered one-third of his gains over 2024 in just a week.
Friday saw him playing out the quickest game of the event, a draw against fellow member of the 2800 club, Fabiano Caruana, that lasted barely an hour. In fact, while other games in the masters section had barely entered the middle game, Arjun Erigaisi and Caruana had walked off after agreeing to a draw.
However, world no 1 Magnus Carlsen believes that Arjun Erigaisi’s slump is not too worrying at the moment.
“I’m not sure we should read all that much into it (Erigaisi’s results),” Magnus Carlsen said on Chess.com commentary during Round 6. “We’ve seen Caruana before the Candidates having a nightmare of a tournament and then winning the event. So I’m not sure if we need to read all that much into it. I guess it becomes a little bit of a mental (issue) at some point if you’re struggling at the very same tournament that you were struggling at before.”
READ MORE: When Magnus Carlsen called Arjun Erigaisi a complete mad man on the chess board in an interview with The Indian Express
Magnus Carlsen was referring to Arjun Erigaisi’s struggles at the Tata Steel masters event in 2023, where he had not won a single game the whole edition.
Magnus Carlsen added: “I think a lot of things have just gone wrong at the same time (for Arjun Erigaisi). I’ve heard from other people that if you do poorly at Tata Steel, then it can be a very long tournament.”
Arjun Erigaisi takes on Magnus Carlsen during their match at the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz at the Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium at Kolkata. (Express photo Partha Paul.)
Analysing Erigaisi’s three defeats so far, Magnus Carlsen pointed out that in the clash against Vladimir Fedoseev, Arjun Erigaisi had taken “a lot of chances in the opening” to outplay his opponent and get a winning position. “He sort of does everything correctly, then he makes a little bit of a random blunder.”
Magnus Carlsen added: “The loss to Harikrishna was harder to explain. He was taking chances… almost like he was playing for a win while creating risks only for himself. He went for a line where I had no idea what his idea was, besides not wanting to take a draw. That game was a strange one.”
Magnus Carlsen said that Arjun Erigaisi was simply “outplayed” R Praggnanandhaa in the other game where he had experienced defeat.