Arjun Erigaisi credits Magnus Carlsen for ESports World Cup inclusion, dissects online cheating in chess
In April, Erigaisi is set to make his Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour debut in Paris. He will also make his ESports World Cup debut later this year.
2025 is turning out to be an exciting year for Arjun Erigaisi. During the Tata Masters in Wijk aan Zee, Erigaisi had a disastrous, and only found his form towards the end, when all hope was lost for him, as he defeated title contender Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the second-last round, and then beat leader and reigning world champion D Gukesh in the 14th round.
Erigaisi was the chaos maker as his win against Gukesh saw the title decided in the tie-breaker. Gukesh had to face R Praggnanandhaa in the tie-breaker and the youngest-ever world champion had to eventually settle for second-place.
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Arjun Erigaisi weighs in on ESports World Cup
In April, Erigaisi is set to make his Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour debut in Paris. He will also make his ESports World Cup debut later this year. For the ESports World Cup, he has been signed by Gen.G and he recently explained his decision to Firstpost. “Yeah, definitely. I think there are a lot of people who don’t follow other sports, but follow Esports a lot. So I think for all of them, this is a chance to look at chess, which is very good for the sport. So that way it definitely opens new doors,” he said.
“Chess can be played not just as a like physical over-the-board sport but also as an e-sport and this is very unique to just chess like no other sport can be played that way. So I’m glad this is happening and I hope it will become huge and open many doors.”
He also credited Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura for igniting his interest in Esports chess. “So first I got to know about the ESports World Cup when Magnus and Hikaru spoke about it, like, towards the end of last year. Okay. Then I, like, I checked the format and things related to that and that excited me. And then Gen G approached my team and because I was already excited about it, like I was also interested,” he said.
“We had a few discussions and then we decided that I’ll play for them and I’m so glad I made that decision. Also, they are the champions in League of Legends and this is their first time with chess, and I’m so glad that they chose me and I’ll try my best to make them proud.”
Erigaisi also weighed in on cheating in online chess, something which has once again come under the spotlight, especially after Carlsen’s appearance at the Joe Rogan podcast. The World No. 1 spilled details on his infamous cheating controversy with American GM Hans Niemann.
“With online, there is this benefit of like just being sitting at home and playing. That’s always nice when you can just be home and play. But also there are other factors like cheating is a bigger concern. There’s also the mouse factor. Some people can play very fast with their mouse and not all can do that,” he said.
“And also internet connection. I haven’t faced any disconnections as such, but it’s definitely the case that the servers in, at least for Chess.com, the servers in US are better. So when you play from US, your move reaches the server faster. So you lose less time and that. So there are these factors,” he added.
He is also currently World No. 5 and India No. 1. He lost his India No. 1 position to Gukesh during the Tata Masters in January this year.
