Norway's Magnus Carlsen makes his last move against India's Arjun Erigaisi.
Doha: Indian Grand Master Arjun Erigaisi produced one of the standout moments of the FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship 2025 in Doha yesterday, defeating World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen to climb to the top of the standings.
In yesterday’s ninth game, Erigaisi outplayed the Norwegian eight-time World Blitz Champion in a tense battle that ended in dramatic fashion. The victory lifted the 22-year-old to the top of the leaderboard with 10 points from 13 rounds at the end of the opening day of the blitz competition at the Qatar University’s Sports and Events Complex. GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Fabiano Caruana also have 10 points, with three more rounds to go on the final day.
Speaking afterwards, Erigaisi said the win over Carlsen was his favourite yesterday.
“I would go with the game against Magnus,” Erigaisi said.
“Even though I won on time, I think I played the middlegame quite well. I got to a winning position, then I messed it up and something happened, but overall the middlegame part was good,” Erigaisi said.
Erigaisi acknowledged that the decisive moment came from a missed detail but remained composed in assessing the outcome.
“I was a bit unhappy because I forgot that the a5 pawn was hanging. It should have been obvious. It was an unfortunate way for him to lose,” he said.
Following the defeat which was a major blow to Carlsen’s bid to seal a ninth world blitz title, the Norwegian slammed his hand on the table out of frustration.
Erigaisi revealed that he was unaware of the off-board commotion that followed the decisive blunder.
“I didn’t know about all that. I just knew the queen fell,” he said.
Erigaisi then went on to defeat Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the following round with another strong show.
“Against Nodirbek, I think he missed f4 and d4 and should have been much better. I underestimated the exchange sacrifice and he got a good position. But when he played Nf3, the d3-d2 idea was very strong and the game ended quickly.”
“I seem to be in good shape. I will just continue to play,” Erigaisi said ahead of the final day’s competition.
The result followed Erigaisi’s third place finish at the World Rapid Championship a day earlier, one of his best finished at the World championships’
Meanwhile, Indian world champion Dommaraju Gukesh suffered a shock defeat, going down to 12-year-old FIDE Master Sergey Sklokin.
Playing with the white pieces, Sklokin put the Indian star under pressure and forced him into time trouble. Gukesh eventually resigned on the 80th move, with Sklokin holding a clear advantage that included two extra pawns and a bishop.
Sklokin, who competes under the FIDE federation flag, entered the round more than 200 rating points below Gukesh, making the result one of the biggest upsets of the championship so far.
The youngster had already made an impression earlier in the event. At the World Rapid Championship, Sklokin finished 90th overall and gained 226.4 rating points, the highest rating increase by any player in the Open category.
Among the Qatari players, Hussein Aziz finished the day with four points, same as Ibrahim Al Janahi and Khaled Al Jumaat.
Ahmed Saif was on three points, while Hamad Al Kuwari and Fahad Al Mansouri hadeach collected two points.
In the women’s competition, 19-year-old Dutch player Ellen Ropers leads the standings after the 10th round with 8.5 points, followed by Russian Alexandra Goryachkina, the tournament’s third seed, with 8 points, tied with Uzbek player Umida Omonova and Belarusian Antonita Stefanova.
Ju Wenjun of China, a five-time women’s world champion, is 44th with 5.5 points.
Representing Qatar, former women’s world champion Zhu Chen finished 93rd with 4.5 points. She won games against Bulgaria’s Beloslava Krasteva, Mexico’s Tania Rodriguez, Georgia’s Kesaria Megaladze, and Spain’s Redondo Rodriguez, and drew with China’s Li Yufei.
