Gukesh, Erigaisi Are Very, Very Strong Players: Chess Legend Viswanathan Anand

The legendary Viswanathan Anand feels young Indian chess players are on the right track given their penchant to hog the limelight on and off, here and there. Teenage Grandmasters R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi among others have been enjoying a superb run in 2022 with wins over world champion Magnus Carlsen being the feather on their caps. Commenting on Gukesh's stunning 29-move win over the Norwegian superstar Carlsen in the preliminary section of the ongoing Aimchess Rapid online tournament, the five-time world champion said it showed that players like him and Erigaisi are very strong and could compete against anybody on the other side of the board.

"I think it just shows that Arjun and Gukesh are very, very strong players who can compete well against whoever is sitting on the other side of the board. It is also nice that they play regularly against the best players because this is how you keep up," Anand told PTI on Monday.

A day before Gukesh, Erigaisi had defeated the world No.1.

The Chennai-based chess legend was all praise for Gukesh and said he is someone who always plays fearlessly and never holds back.

"With Gukesh, he is winning games, losing games, but he is very much in contention for qualification. It was a sharp battle. Gukesh played fearlessly as always. He never holds back, kept the game very dynamic.

"He was worse but Magnus made one mistake, and Gukesh's tactical accuracy is very, very high, and (he) immediately pounced on it.

"I have personal experience of this with Gukesh. Quite often I will make one mistake and he will pounce on it. He is very alert. This is one of Magnus' skills and it is good that Gukesh shows it and it just tells me that they (Gukesh and Erigaisi) are on the right