Arjun Erigaisi Defeats Magnus Carlsen to take the Freestyle Chess Crown

Just like the famous Titled Tuesday weekly online blitz tournament, Freestyle Friday is the new weekly chess tournament for titled players, which gives the audience another day of exciting top-level chess action in the week. As the name suggests, it’s played with the Freestyle/Fischer Random variant. The event is played as an 11-round 3m+2s Swiss, just like the former. Various top players, including the website ambassadors Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, often participate in these events, adding all the more strength and excitement to the mix.

During its 6th week, India #2 Arjun Erigaisi shined on the board and announced his mettle in the Freestyle Chess variant. Erigaisi played enterprising chess, just like his usual self in the standard variant, and beat the GOAT himself—Magnus Carlsen. Online blitz specialist and a creative Freestyle Chess player himself, Nihal Sarin, also did not stand a chance against his compatriot Arjun who blew him off the board in the early middle game (as can be seen in the following position after 23 moves).

Arjun’s only loss came to the 1st Runner-Up, Hikaru Nakamura. Hikaru finished strong by handing Carlsen his 2nd consecutive loss after he lost to Arjun in the previous round.

Arjun had more than one reason to celebrate this Friday as the young Indian was also conferred with Sportsperson of the Year Award from a local digital media platform earlier that day.

In one of the rare sights, Magnus was nowhere close to the podium, which goes to show that Freestyle Chess has opened up an avenue for underdogs to shine. Here’s how the final standings looked after 11 rounds of Freestyle Chess:

Photo credit: Frans Peeters / Tata Steel Chess Tournament