Indians at Freestyle Chess Tour Paris: Arjun Erigaisi offers hope on debut while D Gukesh continues to underwhelm

Arjun Erigaisi put up an impressive performance in his maiden appearance in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Paris, the remaining Indians found themselves occupying three spots in the bottom four with D Gukesh flopping for the second time in as many events.

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.

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 have gone the distance in the two events with Keymer and Carlsen emerging as the winners in Weissenhaus and Paris respectively.

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