The top-ranked Indian player across formats, Arjun was on a roll to start the blitz section of the event. Having finished behind champion Nihal Sarin and runner-up Anand in the rapid section, Arjun strung together five straight wins to establish himself as the favourite in blitz.
India’s top-ranked star Arjun Erigaisi once again defeated the legendary Viswanthan Anand, this time in the Blitz event of the ongoing 2026 Tata Steel Chess India tournament on Saturday. Arjun won five matches back-to-back to start the opening day of the Blitz event but a turn of fortunes late in the day stopped him at 6.5/9.
He will enter the second and final day of the tournament as the second best player on the leaderboard behind American Grandmaster Wesley So who scored 7/9.
Arjun had defeated Anand in the rapid version of the tournament earlier this week and once again earned a victory over the former world champion. The match seemed headed towards a draw before Anand mistakes allowed Arjun to seize advantage and he quickly forced the veteran to resign.
Arjun starts on a high
The top-ranked Indian player across formats, Arjun was on a roll to start the blitz section of the event. Having finished behind champion Nihal Sarin and runner-up Anand in the rapid section, Arjun strung together five straight wins to establish himself as the favourite in blitz.
He started with a win against Volodar Murzin and followed it up with another victory against Wei Yi, who had knocked him out in the World Cup. After that, Arjun’s scalp became Sarin, the rapid champion in this tournament. Anand was the next to fall in round four and in the next round, he defeated Arvindh Chithambaram.
Arjun’s Round 6 opponent was So who had a poor start to the blitz section with a loss to Vidit Gujrathi. However, So had bounced back since then and gave Arjun his first defeat.
In the next three rounds, Arjun earned only one win to settle half a point behind So in the leaderboard ahead of the final day. Sarin remains at the third spot with 5.5 while Anand and Gujrathi are joint fourth with 5.
In the Women’s event, International Master Carissa Yip gained a sole lead with score of 6/9. India’s R Vaishali was joint second at 5.5/9.
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