Freestyle Chess Grand Slam: Arjun Erigaisi finishes fifth in Paris; wins $50,000

Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi finished fifth at the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam in Paris on Monday.

The 21-year-old from Warangal beat France's Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in 1.5-0.5 in the fifth place play-off to walk home $50,000 richer.

Having won the first game against Vachier-Lagrave, Erigaisi needed only a draw in the second game on Monday.

The Indian was made to work hard but managed to hold his own from an inferior position to finish fifth in the competition.

Erigaisi had earlier defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi in the previous classification round to set up a fifth place play-off clash against Vachier-Lagrave.

This was after he went down to the eventual runner-up Hikaru Nakamura in the quarter-finals.

Erigaisi was the best finishing Indian at the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam in Paris.

Three other Indians – R Praggnanandhaa, reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, and Vidit Gujrathi – had all failed to make it to the quarter-finals.

While Praggnanandhaa finished ninth, Gukesh and Vidit finished joint last in the 12-man field.