Bengaluru: It was past midnight on Thursday in India when Gukesh D found his first win in Stavanger. In the Norwegian city that lies on the North Sea coast, there were still a few hours to go for his 19th birthday.
Since becoming world champion last year, the Indian teen hasn’t delivered the kind of dominant results typically expected from someone fresh off such a milestone. He arrived for the Norway Chess tournament with the proverbial sword of Damocles hanging over his head – can he defeat five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen? They were paired in Round 1 and Gukesh went on to lose the encounter after Carlsen brought his superlative endgame skills to bear. A sharp quip from the world No 1 followed – ‘You come for the king, you best not miss’. Gukesh spiralled to a second straight defeat against fellow Indian Arjun Erigaisi in the following round and appeared visibly gutted, turning away from the cameras soon after resigning.
By Round 3, Gukesh was already being seen as ‘vulnerable’ – including by his opponent that day, world No 2 Hikaru Nakamura. Turns out, he was digging in his heels for a fightback. The American came close to drawing the game and was briefly up a pawn but admittedly began relaxing a bit too early which resulted in the ill-thought 28. Rd8. Nakamura – who had a day earlier taken down Carlsen in the Armageddon – was under the impression that the endgame was an easy draw and he could stretch matters to an Armageddon yet again. He made Gukesh a draw offer on move 30 which the young Indian turned down and in the next move Nakamura snuffed out any semblance of a recovery with a miscalculated and losing move, 31…Qd6. “I was close to winning at that point and after Qd6 I thought it should be over,” Gukesh said. “I feel quite good. I think my time management was much better today than before. He had some drawing chances, but I guess overall it was a good game.”
This win must come as a relief to Gukesh, who has been struggling with his form since he turned world champion. Barring the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk Aan Zee in January, his performances since have largely been underwhelming. In such situations, the innermost circle of a player, typically their trainer, has a role to play. Gukesh is accompanied by coach Grzegorz Gajewski, formerly Viswanathan Anand’s second. “He (Gajewski) is not the kind who sits around and allows you to mope,” Anand offered, “His attitude was – ‘Look you’re taking a bit longer to feel fine and that’s OK. I’ve prepared what you’re supposed to do today and I want you to familiarise yourself with it and get ready to play’. I think that’s probably what he would have done with Gukesh as well.”
The silver lining in his ‘difficult’ loss, Nakamura later mentioned, was that Arjun too had lost his Round 3 game, against Fabiano Caruana. Arjun is the player closest to Nakamura in the race for the ratings spot in the Candidates tournament next year. “I still have a 20-point cushion heading into Round 4,” said the American.
While Gukesh found his first win of the tournament, Carlsen had a second straight tough day at Norway Chess, losing to China’s highest-ranked player Wei Yi in the Armageddon, after their classical game was drawn.
It’s the second Armageddon in a row that the defending champion has lost so far in three rounds. Playing with the White pieces in the Armageddon, Carlsen had to win while all Wei Yi needed was a draw with Black to take 1.5 points. Wei Yi was ruthless, locking down the White king and Carlsen resigned soon after. “I’m so happy, because it’s my first win against Magnus in my chess career, even if it’s an Armageddon game!, “ Wei Yi beamed.
