Arjun opens campaign with 4 wins

Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi opened his campaign with four wins and a solitary loss in the World Rapid Chess Championship to be tied fifth even as defending champion Magnus Carlsen endured a frustrating day, managing to log just one victory here.

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Carlsen of Norway could not find his mojo drew three games and a late loss against Russian Denis Lazavik. Another Indian to impress was 13-year-old Raunak Sadhwani, who provided glimpse of his promise by taking down one of pre-event favourites Alireza Firouzja of France on Thursday.

With the first five rounds done and eight more still to come in Rs 5,50,000 championship, Murzin Volodar of Russia, Shant Sargsyan of Armenia and the American duo of Daniel Naroditsky and Lenier Dominguez Perez share the lead on 4.5 points apiece.

Arjun and Sadhwani are in the next group of 11 players who share the fifth spot on four points each. It is an impressive list that includes the likes of Hikaru Nakamura of the US, Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan and Anish Giri of Holland.

In the Women’s section being played simultaneously, local star Alice Lee stole the opening day thunder with four straight victories in as many games.

The American is challenged by world champion Wenjun Ju of China, her compatriot Zhongyi Tan, Gunay Mammadzada of Azerbaijan, Nino Batsiashvili of Georgia and India’s D Harika who all have 3.5 points to their credit.

With seven rounds to come in the women’s event, R Vaishali could also among the ones to watch out for from an Indian perspective as the Chennai-based is on three points.

Highest rated and former winner Koneru Humpy could manage only 2.5 points and has a lot of catching up to do in the remainder of the event.

Arjun, if he wins this championship, will be the first player to go through to the Candidates, a cycle that started early this year and will continue till December 2025.

Currently the Indian stands second behind Fabiano Caruana of United States who is on 3.5 points.