On Monday, which was the second rest day of the Tata Steel Chess tournament, German grandmaster Matthias Bluebaum found himself unable to shake off the feeling that he will never win a chess game again. Bluebaum, who stunned the world of chess by securing a spot at the upcoming Candidates tournament, had played out four draws in a row at Wijk aan Zee heading into Monday’s rest day. His eight games at Wijk had brought him just one victory. So the feeling was understandable.
“But now it feels better again,” grinned Bluebaum on Tuesday as he joined the Chess24 broadcast after defeating world champion Gukesh Dommaraju in round 9 of the Tata Steel Chess tournament. It was a game where the Indian teenager got an inferior position out of the opening and was never able to claw his way back to parity before eventually resigning in 37 moves. For the teenage world champion who will defend his world championship crown later this year, this was the third defeat at the tournament in nine rounds, with four games ending in draws and just two victories.
Bluebaum said that he had not spent too much of the rest day worrying about Gukesh’s opening prep with white pieces.
“I looked at some stuff on the rest day, but I knew I would not be able to guess what he came up with in the opening with white pieces,” Bluebaum said.
He added that Gukesh had opted to play the Bishop Opening to try and avoid the Petrov that Bluebaum had already used against others in the tournament. The German admitted that he was taken aback by the line that Gukesh had opted after the opening phase.
“His main issue was that he kept playing for a win,” the German remarked.
For Bluebaum, this is now the third Indian prodigy from the golden troika that he has defeated. On the way to securing a Candidates spot at the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament last year, he had defeated Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
