New Delhi: New world champion D Gukesh defeated Leon Luke Mendonca to become sole leader of the Tata Steel Chess Masters tournament in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands.
He moved to 6.5 points out of a maximum nine points after registering his fourth win of the tournament in only 43 moves. It put him ahead of Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Slovenia’s Vladimir Fedoseev by half a point.
Abdusattorov drew against Fabiano Caruana whie Vladimir Fedoseev won his fourth win in six games, against Pentala Harikrishna. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa was jointly on top but lost to Anish Giri to trail by a point, sliding to the fourth spot in the standings.
Gukesh’s next faces the Netherlands’ Max Warmerdam and Jorden van Foreest after which he will pits his wits against defending champion China’s Wei Yi.
Mendonca is still searching for his forst win of the tournament, having drawn five times and losing four games. Arjun Erigaisi, who has made headlines after reaching an Elo rating of 2801, is also yet to win.
He takes in Van Foreest and Abdusattorov in his next two rounds, before clashing with Gukesh in his last match of the tournament.
In the Challengers’ section, R. Vaishali was placed eighth in the standings after playing out a draw with Divya Deshmukh in the ninth round.
Thailand’s Dai Van Nguyen remained on top as the sole leader with 6.5 out of nine maximum points. Benjamin Bok and Erwin l’Ami are half a point behind.
Round 9 results:
Masters section:
D. Gukesh (6.5), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (6), Vladimir Fedoseev (6), R. Praggnanandhaa (5.5), Alexey Sarana (5), Fabiano Caruana (5), Yi Wei (5), Anish Giri (4.5), R. Harikrishna (4), Jorden van Foreest (3.5), Vincent Keymer (3.5), Max Warmerdam (3.5), Arjun Erigaisi (2.5), Leon Luke Mendonca (2.5)
Challengers section:
Thai Dan Van Nguyen (6.5), Erwin I’Ami (6), Benjamin Bok (6), Aydin Suleymanli (5.5), Kazybek Nogerbek (5.5), Miaoyi Lu (5), Frederik Svane (5), R. Vaishali (5), Ediz Gurel (5), Nodirbek Yakubboev (4.5), Arthur Pijpers (3.5), Faustino Oro (2.5), Divya Deshmukh (2), Irina Bulmaga (1)
D Gukesh defeated Leon Luke Mendonca in only 43 moves to become sole leader of the Tata Steel Chess Masters tournament Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
