Paris: Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi secured a fifth-place finish at the Paris leg of the ongoing Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour on Monday. He was rewarded with a handsome amount of $50,000 (approximately Rs 43 lakh) for his performance.
The 21-year-old outplayed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the clash for the fifth position, defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the classification game before that. His hopes to clinch the title were dashed when he lost to Hikaru Nakamura in the quarterfinal of the tournament. Magnus Carlsen topped the tournament and bagged a reward of $200,000 (approximately Rs 1.7 crore). For his exploits.
World no. 1 @MagnusCarlsen receives his 🏆 and check for $200,000 after winning the 2025 Paris #FreestyleChess Grand Slam! @GMHikaru takes 🥈 & $140,000, while @FabianoCaruana is 🥉 with $100,000! pic.twitter.com/9EUC2wjEXM
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 14, 2025
Amongst the Indian players who competed in Paris, Arjun was the best performer in the 12-player field. The other Indians in the fray were Chess Olympiad gold medalist R Praggnanandhaa, who ended up at the ninth spot. World Champions D Gukesh and Vidit Gujarathi shared the last spot.
Erigaisi stated that it was a fun tournament to play.
“This is one of the most fun tournaments I have had in the last few years,” Arjun told Chessbase India after his win over Vachier-Lagrave.
Arjun Erigaisi finishes his journey at Paris in style! In the 5th-6th place matchup at Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, Arjun defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave by 1.5-0.5 points.
— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) April 14, 2025
He defeated MVL in Game 1, and scored a draw from a tough position in Game 2 to clinch the… pic.twitter.com/eAYqjBG9lc
He also shared that it was disappointing not to play for the first spot, but it wasn’t frustrating at all.
“It was disappointing to not be able to play for first spot, but it’s practice for other freestyle tournaments. So I wouldn’t call it frustrating,” Arjun told the official broadcaster of the event after beating his French opponent.
Arjun will now head to Grenke, Germany, to take part in another freestyle event starting on Friday. In the tournament, players will play two classical games per day.
