Arjun Erigaisi lost to Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the semifinals of the 2025 World Blitz Championships, to finish with a bronze medal. That was his second medal of the week, in addition to being the bronze medalist at the World Rapid Championships in Doha earlier. Two huge world medals in a week have been such a positive way to end a 2025 that has been difficult for Erigaisi, but it is a strong reminder of how capable he is of challenging — and beating — the best players in the world.
Erigaisi became only the second Indian to win medals at both the world rapid and blitz championships in the same year — after Viswanathan Anand did so in Riyadh in 2017, when he won gold in rapid and bronze in blitz.
It was shaping up to be even better for Erigaisi in the second part of the Swiss-style league stage, from where only the top four qualified for the knockouts. Erigaisi was top of the pile after 19 rounds of blitz chess, which he finished with 12 wins, 6 draws, and just one loss. He beat Magnus Carlsen in that league stage, he also had some excellent other results in the blitz tournament, like wins against World Cup winner Javokhir Sindarov, and Abdusattorov himself in the league stage.
The knockouts didn’t go Erigaisi’s way, as Abdusattorov played clinical games in the opening two, to make it a bridge too far for Erigaisi to cross. However, after a 2025 that saw Erigiai’s classical game struggle a little bit, and saw him narrowly miss out on a spot at the FIDE Candidates tournament yet again, this end to the year is bound to give him some confidence again, as he dusts himself off and prepares to regain some ranking points again, starting from the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee in mid-January.
This week in Doha marked Erigaisi’s best performance at a FIDE individual event. Of course, he has Olympiad team golds and individual golds on his CV already, but at individual events, Erigaisi has come close but fallen short at the clutch fairly often. He has been knocked out in the quarterfinals of the each of the last two FIDE World Cups. At the World Rapid Championships in New York last year, he finished fifth, just half a point off a medal.
Further, at the end of 2024, he was close to finishing the year top of the FIDE circult, but finished just a win short at the Qatar Masters tournament last December, that meant he finished second in the circuit to Fabiano Caruana, and lost out on a spot at the Candidates tournament, a blow which has ended up perhaps being a lot more painful after the way 2025 has panned out, with Erigaisi not qualifying for the Candidates at all.
Since that difficult loss to Wei Yi in the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Goa last month, Erigaisi has had to recover himself mentally, from the blow of coming close but not making it to two Candidates tournaments in a row. During the Global Chess League in Mumbai earlier this month, he said that he didn’t see the Candidates miss as the end of the world. He has many more chances of making it there, and even of being world champion, he went on to say.
It is that kind of drive and confidence in his own ability that has got Erigaisi to where he is right now. So close to the top, there’s no real reason to change his ways despite the number of near-misses he’s had. He has the faith that one day, his hardwork will give him the fruits of the labour.
Additionally, in the larger picture of Indian chess, Erigaisi’s double-medal in Doha this week is significant. He’s India’s first medallist in both rapid and blitz in the open section since Anand in 2017. While there has, rightly, been a lot of fanfare about this new, young generation of Indian chess players, an area where they have needed serious work has been in the faster time controls. Their prowess in classical chess was, and still is, fairly unquestionable, but in the quicker time controls, the youngsters have floundered fairly often.
So, in that context, Erigaisi’s week in Doha now sets a benchmark. It shows the likes of D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin a route to follow. Their benchmark in the faster time controls isn’t anymore the mythical figure that is Anand, it is one of their own peers.
Whether or not Erigaisi fulfils his ultimate dream of being world champion one day, only time will tell. In Doha this week, though, he scripted a week that only one other Indian has ever done in the history of this tournament. When your world is chess in India, sitting on a table with Vishy Anand is not at all a bad place to be in.
