Freestyle Grand Slam Tour Stage 2: Arjun Erigaisi stuns Magnus Carlsen on Day 1; Gukesh off to rough start
Arjun Erigaisi beat Magnus Carlsen to begin his campaign positively at the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour Stage 2 in Paris on Monday.
The 21-year-old handed the world no. 1 player his sole loss of the day as Carlsen went on to win the next four games and move to the top of the points table with 5/6.
Arjun, who also beat Fabiano Caruana, finished the day with 3.5/6 and is currently the top Indian performer, ahead of compatriot R. Praggnanandhaa, who earned two wins after beating beat Ian Nepomniachtchi and Vidit Gujrathi to score 2.5/6.
World Champion D. Gukesh had a tough start after losing to 1.5/6. His solitary win was from defeating Arjun, securing his first full point from a Freestyle chess game this year after he went winless through the first leg at Weissenhaus in February.
Vidit missed a chance to draw with Carlsen in Round 1 but defeated the Gukesh in the following round to win his only point on the first day.
Day 1 Standings (after six games in round-robin stage)
1. Magnus Carlsen – 5/6
2. Nodirbek Abdusattorov – 5/6
3. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – 4.5/6
4. Ian Nepomniachtchi – 4/6
5. Hikaru Nakamura – 3.5/6
6. Arjun Erigaisi – 3.5/6
7. Fabiano Caruana – 2.5/6
8. R. Praggnanandhaa – 2.5/6
9. Vincent Keymer – 2/6
10. D. Gukesh – 1.5/6
11. Vidit Gujrathi – 1/6
12. Richard Rapport – 1/6