Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi is in the form of his life. Weeks after starting 2022 by winning the Tata Steel Challengers in Wijk Aan Zee, the 18-year-old from Warangal notched up his maiden senior National chess crown in Kanpur on Thursday. Arjun who scored 8.5 points from 11 rounds in the competition was tied for first place along with GMs D Gukesh and P Iniyan but won the event on a better tie-break score. Gukesh finished second while Iniyan settled for the third spot.
The victory earned Arjun 11 ELO points to take his rating to 2670. He is India No. 4 ranked player behind five-time former World champion Viswanathan Anand, P Harikrishna and Vidit Gujrathi.