India’s Arjun Erigaisi emerges world’s best online Freestyle Chess player

Freestyle Chess is the current favourite of elite chess players, including World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen and World Champion D Gukesh. But the hottest property among the world's best is India's Arjun Erigaisi. The 21-year-old won a hat-trick of Freestyle Friday online events featuring almost all the elite grandmasters in the world, including Carlsen.

In the most recent Freestyle Friday event hosted by chessdotcom, Erigaisi scored 10 points out of a possible 11. He defeated compatriot Gukesh in the tenth round and lost just once, to Alexander Grishchuk, in round 6. Carlsen finished 15th on 7.5 points, famously losing to young Indian GM Mitrabha Guha in round 4.

Erigaisi also won the Freestyle Friday events on March 7 and February 28. He scored 10 again on the first Friday of March, a week skipped by Carlsen. But in the Freestyle event on the last Friday of February, Erigaisi beat the Norwegian superstar in round 10 to finish first on 9.5 points.

Freestyle Chess, also known as Chess960 or Fischer random chess, is a variant different from conventional chess mainly because of the starting positions of the pieces on the back rank. There are 960 possible starting positions. For example, the rooks, which are typically placed on the far ends of the back rank, could appear in the middle portion.

As Freestyle Chess has not been studied as deeply as conventional chess, the theoretical approach is limited, making the games more exciting.

The Freestyle Chess initiative was founded by Carlsen and German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner. They rolled out the first Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour this year, with the first leg held at Weissenhaus in Germany. Gukesh was the only Indian participant in the 10-player field, in which German Vincent Keymer emerged as the winner, defeating Carlsen in the process.

The second leg of the Tour set to be held in Paris in the second week of April will feature four Indians, namely Gukesh, Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujarathi, who became eligible after winning the qualifiers. Based on his recent form, Erigaisi should be the favourite for the prestigious event.