New Delhi: World champion D Gukesh defeated Arjun Erigaisi in a classical game for the first time to rise to the second spot of the Norway Chess after the seventh round.
Playing with white in this match of the six-payer double round-robin tournament, Gukesh won for the second time on the trot to avenge his loss to Gukesh in the second round.
Gukesh had beaten Magnus Carlsen earlier and now overtaken the defending champion and World No.1 with 11.5 points. It was Gukesh’s first win over Erigaisi in three meetings.
Erigaisi had defeated Gukesh at the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Netherlands and round two of the ongoing tournament in Stavanger.
American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana, who defeated Wei Yi of China on Monday, hold the pole position on 12.5 points with three round of matches left.
Carlsen remains on the third spot with 11 points after beating another American GM and World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura, who is fourth with 8.5 points.
Erigaisi slid to fifth with 7.5 points after going down to Gukesh, while Wei Yi is sixth with 6.5 points.
“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 which doesn’t lose on the spot and in the time scrambles things happen,” Gukesh said after his win.
“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,” Gukesh’s Polish coach Grzegorz 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.
“So, on the very next day (against Erigaisi), when you’re again in trouble, you definitely know what to do, you just keep fighting.”
Gajewski said Gukesh’s mentality to play the ‘perfect game’ has helped him notch up impressive wins over tough opponents.
“He’s demanding the very highest level of accuracy and precision from you (opponent), and if you’re not up to it, you might mess up the position even if you’re number one in the world,” the Pole said.
“Erigaisi is a very difficult opponent to beat, but I would not compare the two games. You really have to achieve a lot to be compared with Magnus in any regard. (For Monday’s game) Gukesh was just focused. It was nice, definitely very nice yesterday (to beat Carlsen), but today is a new challenge and after that there is another challenge.
“Gukesh was just making moves; he was completely in the zone from the first move to the last move… He has extraordinary calculation abilities, which combined with his fighting spirit help him defend so many positions,” added the Pole.
Results (Round 7)
Open: D Gukesh (Ind – 11.5 points) bt Arjun Erigaisi (Ind – 7.5); Fabiano Caruana (USA – 12.5) bt Wei Yi (Chn – 6.5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor – 11) bt Hikaru Nakamura (USA – 8.5) in Armageddon tie-break.
Women: Lei Tingjie (Chn – 9) bt R Vaishali (Ind – 8); Ju Wenjun (Chn – 11.5 points) bt Sara Khadem (Esp – 6); Koneru Humpy (Ind – 10.5) lost to Anna Muzychuk (Ukr – 11) in Armageddon tie-break.
Gukesh won for the second time on the trot to avenge his loss to Gukesh in the second round of Norway Chess. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
