This image of Erigaisi on Saturday in Mumbai was in contrast to less than a month ago in Goa. That was a picture of heartbreak – literally too, as Erigaisi posted that emoji on X – after the second seed crashed out from the quarter-finals of the FIDE World Cup. It shattered his goal of qualifying for the 2026 Candidates, for which three spots from the home tournament were up for grabs.

A so-near-yet-so-far tale can be hard enough to digest once but for the 22-year-old, it was a repeat of the 2023 World Cup where he also stumbled in the last eight. It therefore took a few days after the latest setback for Erigaisi to pull himself together.

“It was very tough,” Erigaisi said. “Missing out on the previous Candidates itself was tough, and I had to wait two years again. Yet it was the same story – I was close again and missed out by a whisker. The next few days, I had to really pull myself together to get back to work again, move on and focus on the tournaments that were coming up.”

What helped get him back up and running was, incidentally, chess itself. Erigaisi landed in Mumbai on Saturday for GCL after competing in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Final in South Africa.

“It’s better to have some tournaments going on, rather than just being home for the next few months. That would have been worse,” said the GM from Warangal.

What also helped was the realisation, after those initial gloomy days, that it wasn’t the end of the world. Some athletes rely on outside voices for such positive reinforcements. For Erigaisi it was largely self-engineered.

“Of course, I talk to my family, but it mainly came from within me – that it is not the end of the world, and I know that I’ll have many Candidates and hopefully one day become world champion as well,” he said.

“(But) When my chances come, I have to be able to take them. And for that I need to keep working harder.”

While Erigaisi had “no complaints” about the qualification system for Candidates, he believed the FIDE Circuit could offer greater reward to the player finishing second (Erigaisi was second in 2024). R Praggnanandhaa finished first this year and sealed his Candidates berth, whose winner will challenge world champion D Gukesh.

Does seeing his two compatriots fight for (and win) bigger things add pressure on Erigaisi, who, at world No.5 and Elo 2775, is India’s highest-rated player currently?

“It’s definitely motivating when others do well, that even I want to do well. But it’s not anything negative, which can be termed as pressure. It’s only positive,” he said.

‘Great time for GCL to happen’

Erigaisi will have Gukesh as his teammate at PBG Alaskan Knights during GCL starting on Sunday, after which he will head to Doha for the World Rapid & Blitz Championship.

“This is a great time for GCL to happen. It’ll be like a good warm-up and practice. It’s good to get to play some rapid games and to get some shorter time controls,” Erigaisi said.