Bengaluru: Gukesh D ran into his first loss in the Chennai Grandmasters, against Alireza Firouzja in Round 2 on Friday. The win handed the French-Iranian grandmaster a full-point lead in the tournament.
A day after outplaying Pranesh, Firouzja made it 2/2, becoming the only player in the tournament to have won both of his games so far. The remaining games ended in draws.
Gukesh, who had marshaled his defensive skills to hold Nihal Sarin to a draw in the opening round, had no such luck with the black pieces against Firouzja.
The game swung wildly before the reigning world champion found himself a pawn down in the endgame.
At one point, both Firouzja and Gukesh were down to 30 seconds with just a 30-second increment per move to be added for the rest of the game.
With Friday’s win, Firouzja climbed to world No. 9 in the live ratings while Gukesh dropped to world No. 28, below 14-year-old Turkish prodigy Yaagiz Kaan Erdogmus.
Round 2 results: Hans Niemann drew Nihal Sarin, Alireza Firouzja beat Gukesh D, Dmitry Andreikin drew M Pranesh, Nodirbek Abdusattorov drew Arjun Erigaisi
