Reigning world champion D Gukesh continued to turn adversity into opportunity as he wriggled out of a virtually intractable position to beat compatriot Arjun Erigaisi for the first time ever in a classical game and jump to sole second position after Round 7 of Norway Chess.
As has been the trend in Gukesh’s campaign in this elite six-payer double round-robin tournament, the teenager, playing with white, showed nerves of steel to secure his second consecutive win without going through the rigmarole of an Armageddon tie-break, to take sweet revenge for his loss to Erigaisi earlier in Round 2.
The win, which came after a nerve-wracking victory against defending champion and World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, saw Gukesh, 19, overtake the 34-year-old Norwegian on the points table with 11.5 points. This was also Gukesh’s first win in three attempts against Erigaisi, who had beaten the world champion at the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee to spoil his title-winning chances, and then again in Round 2.
With three more rounds to go, pole sitter American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana, who defeated Wei Yi of China, is leading with 12.5 points. Carlsen is third with 11 points following his Armageddon win against another American Grandmaster and World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura, who is fourth with 8.5 points. Erigaisi dropped to fifth position with 7.5 points following the loss, while Wei Yi is placed sixth with 6.5 points.
For the first three-and-a-half hours of the game, Gukesh was on the defensive but finally managed to up his game to earn a win, tying down his opponent in time trouble. Erigaisi faltered that wee bit, which gave Gukesh an opening that he exploited and forced his opponent to resign after some intense play.
“Probably I was just losing it at some point. I was just slowly getting outplayed. From the opening, nothing went my way, but once I got to this position, I just had to keep making moves, and in the time scrambles things happen,” Gukesh told the broadcaster after the match.
Analysing the game, Gukesh’s Polish coach Grzegorz Gajewski said though it was not the best game played by the reigning world champion, but he was happy that he had pulled it off. "Probably not his best game ever, at least not the first half of the game, but definitely a very good second half of the game, so happy with that.”
On whether the win on Monday was because of a change of mindset following Gukesh’s come-from-behind victory against Carlsen on Sunday, Gajewski said, “When you’re in such trouble as in Sunday’s game, and you keep fighting and you get rewarded for it, you have even more faith that it makes sense to keep fighting,” opined Gukesh’s coach.
The Carlsen vs Nakamura game was interesting as the two players agreed to a draw after just 21 moves with both having about an hour-and-a-half each left on the clock. In the Armageddon, Carlsen defeated the World No.2 to log in 1.5 points.
In the women’s section, Ukrainian Grandmaster Anna Muzychuk got the better of two-time world rapid champion Koneru Humpy in Armageddon tie-break, while R. Vaishali fell apart in time trouble against China’s Lei Tingjie. Ju Wenjun is leading the table with 11.5 points, followed by Muzychuk (11 points) at second and Humpy at third position with 10.5 points.
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