Arjun Erigaisi Is One Of The Four Kings Of All Chess Formats; Joins Elite List At Start Of 2026

What do Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja and Arjun Erigaisi have in common?

They are the only four players in the world ranked inside the Top 10 in all three formats: Classical, Rapid and Blitz.

That alone places Arjun Erigaisi in rarefied air. What makes it even more remarkable is how he got there.

Arjun capped off the 2025 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships in Doha with two bronze medals, in both Rapid and Blitz, an extraordinary feat at the most volatile elite chess event of the year.

He fell to Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the Blitz semifinals, but still walked away with bronze, adding to the Rapid bronze he had secured earlier in the week. Two world medals in a single week and a powerful response after what had been a challenging

year.

In doing so, Erigaisi became only the second Indian in history to win medals in both World Rapid and Blitz Championships in the same year — following Viswanathan Anand (gold in Rapid, bronze in Blitz, Riyadh 2017).

Thanks to his performances in Qatar, Erigaisi is now ranked:

• World No. 3 in Rapid
• World No. 7 in Blitz
• Top 10 in Classical

He is now the only Indian player currently ranked in the world Top 10 across all three formats.

Erigaisi’s rise places him shoulder to shoulder with Carlsen, Nakamura and Firouzja. Two world medals. Three formats. One exclusive club.

In other news for Indian Chess, R Praggnanandhaa sits at World No. 8, the World Champion climbed to No. 9, while Nihal Sarin’s President Cup triumph in Tashkent lifted him to World No. 25.

India now boasts six players in the Open Top 30, and seven women in the World Top 100.