Arjun Erigaisi is at the doors of the 2800 ELO club

Two years ago Arjun Erigaisi joined the 2700 ELO club. He competed for the India A team at the 44th Chess Olympiad. With an impressive score of 8.5/11 points on the third board, Erigaisi was the second best individual player of Board 3 at the Olympiad (see the list of best individual players here), and a good performance was crowned with a ticket to the 2700 club. With a victory over Leiner Dominguez in the last round, Erigaisi leaped to the 38th position on the live rating list with 2702.2 live rating. Arjun Erigaisi is the 7th Indian player to join the 2700 club.

Since that moment, the 2700 list is in constant deflation with currently only 31 players being listed above the 2700 mark, seven less than when Erigaisi joined the party.

Today, just like two years ago, and definitely against the trend, Arjun Erigaisi has the chance to enter the 2800 club. Erigaisi will be the second Indian after Vishy Anand to enter the club. Currently Erigaisi is at 5,0/5 at the Olympiad with +10.1 ELO at 2788, just 12 points away from the 2800 ELO.

See: Interview with Arjun Erigaisi before the Olympiad (video)