Stavanger, May 30 -- At some point during this year's Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee-where he suffered four defeats in the first seven rounds-Arjun Erigaisi was almost compelled to abandon his recent mindset of not chasing points or worrying about results. "I just could no longer continue with it," Arjun said. "So, during Wijk, it changed a bit. But as of now, I'm back to that mindset." And back to winning. He defeated Gukesh D in an all-Indian second-round clash at Norway Chess-his second classical win over the world champion this year. The win propelled him to world No 3 in the live ratings, displacing Gukesh as the country's highest-ranked player. It was a game marked by a familiar opening and an unusual ending, with the typically inscrutable Gukesh letting some emotion show. Right after resigning and offering the handshake, Gukesh covered his face with his left hand, turned away from the cameras, and sat tucked away for an extended period. Arjun emerged and summed up his feelings in one word: relief. Relief at not letting Gukesh escape with a draw in a battle he felt should have been wrapped up much earlier. "I thought I was winning in the middlegame itself, and if I had screwed that up, it would've really affected my thoughts," Arjun said. Arjun played his cards in a way that left Gukesh with all the thinking to do. The 21-year-old kicked off with an opening that mirrored the infamous Magnus Carlsen-Hans Niemann game from the 2022 Sinquefield Cup. By the 17th move, Arjun had nearly an hour and 15 minutes more on the clock than the calculative Gukesh, who eventually succumbed to time pressure despite trying to hold on until the end. It's what makes Arjun an interesting player to watch. He isn't shy of rolling the dice early, and going with it despite some hiccups along the way. He has also, so far, been a rare Indian face at the confessional booth in his debut here, giving a real-time peek into his thoughts. It's at the confessional booth that Arjun said he was a bit surprised to see Gukesh eat up time to think so early on, presuming that he was looking to deviate early to "probably avoid some potential preparation". "It was just that he ran into my prep," Arjun said after the game. "I could just play without thinking, while he had to really think hard." It's the kind of freedom-infused mentality that has come to define Arjun in recent times. He has spoken about detaching himself from the cold metrics of ratings and results-a shift in perspective that fuelled a red-hot 2024, during which he crossed the 2800 Elo milestone. But in his first classical outing of the year at Wijk aan Zee, that refreshing outlook hit a wall as he lost four of his first seven games. His mind began to drift back into a negative, obsessive, result-driven zone. "I couldn't take it anymore. It just went out of my control," he said. Arresting that slide with a series of draws, and closing with two wins-including one against Gukesh in the final round-helped him pull out of a potential downward spiral. The mindset that had fuelled his surge was restored. "About 3-4 days after the tournament, I was back to that mindset," he said. "It wasn't that challenging to bring it back once it was all done." Being disengaged from the outcome doesn't necessarily mean he is fully indifferent to it, though. "I mean, it's not like I don't care (about results)," Arjun said. "But I want to try and focus on the process and not the result." Arjun had also borne the brunt of putting too much pressure on himself while trying to qualify for the previous Candidates. He believes he's getting better at handling heightened pressure-both on and off the board. "It's a gradual process. I still fumble sometimes under pressure-for instance, against Hikaru (Nakamura) in the Freestyle event in Paris. I've definitely improved, even though there's still a lot of room for growth," he said. Another change that has come with his rising rating is the kind of invitations he now receives-tournaments like Norway Chess, which he had long aspired to be part of. "It's definitely one of the strongest tournaments, because you don't often see the top five players competing in the same event, especially in such a compact, six-player field," he said....