Gukesh’s achievement is massive and I’m very happy for him: Erigaisi
In October this year, where Erigaisi defeated Russian GM Dmitry Andreikin in round five of European Club Cup (Serbia), he reached 2802.1 by live rating, becoming 16th player in the history to be part of the rare club.
During an interaction with TNIE before the Qatar Masters, Erigaisi said,”When it happened (crossing 2800 by live rating), I was happy because I won my game and I knew before this would happen if I win the game but I did not care much about it and it was an important match for the team. But unfortunately, our team lost the game that we supposed would end in a draw. But it still matters a lot and feels nice that I am in this list with the absolute top players of Kasparov (Garry), Carlsen (Magnus), Anand sir. It feels good to join them. In less than a year, I made a gain of 60 points.”
He views 2024 as a “huge moment”, especially winning the coveted Olympiad title, including an individual gold. He also earned victories at the Menorca Open A, the Stepan Avagyan Memorial, and the WR Chess Masters Cup in London.
“When I began the year, I was at 2738 (live rating) and now I reached 2800, so that’s a big rating game and winning gold at the Olympiad, both in team and individual events was a huge moment. Also, winning the WR Masters Cup was very good as it was one of few invitational tourneys where I played against a strong line-up of Abdusattorov (Nodirbek), Alireza (Firouzja), Pragg (R Praggnanandhaa) and Anand sir,” he recalled.
The World No 4 will be among the five Indians who will be featuring in the World Rapid & Blitz Championship to be held in New York from December 26 to 31. Erigaisi believes that ratings in chess are unpredictable and keeps on fluctuating. “It is possible (Gukesh being the next Indian to cross 2800) but you cannot say these things for sure. For instance, he was 2796 in live ratings but he had a few bad games after that and his ratings went down. At the start of the year, Pragg was higher-rated than both of us but it changed as the year passed. So these things keep fluctuating and anything can happen,” Erigaisi said.