Arjun Erigaisi. (PTI Photo)
Erigaisi would have inched closer to the coveted 2800 mark with the win over the Turk on the day, but it was not to be as the young sensation got the better of the Indian in an exciting encounter.
Indian Chess ace Arjun Erigaisi went down to 15-year-old Turkish player Edin Gurel in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Erigaisi went down to the young sensation from Turkey as the Indian was guilty of late-game errors.
Erigaisi was representing Team SK Dusseldorfer at the Schach Bundesliga, after his brief trip back to India in order to be part of the felicitation ceremony held by the honourable Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi.
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Erigaisi, who led the Indian charge to a historic maiden gold medal at the recently concluded 45th Chess Olympiad in Hungary, would have inched closer to the coveted 2800 mark with the win over the Turk on the day, but it was not to be as the young genius got the better of the Indian in an exciting encounter.
Erigaisi, along with D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Pentala Harikrishna and Vidit Gujarati, clinched the top spot in the open category in Budapest, while the women’s contingent of D Harika, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agarwal, and Tania Sachdev doubled the delight by also clinching the yellow metal in the women’s category.
India’s previous best performance at the Olympiad was a bronze medal finish at the 2022 edition of the event on home soil.
Vidit Gujrati, who was scheduled to defend his title at the Vugar Gashimov Memorial Chess Super Tournament Title in Azerbaijan, opted to skip the event in order to make the felicitation ceremony with the honourable Prime Minister.
Gujarati had reached Baku, before flying back down to India in order to have an audience with the PM, who has been a fervent supporter of sport and has been at the forefront of the sporting development in the nation, which has yielded results on the international stage in the recent past.