Nihal Sarin slapped a hand on his forehead as his buddy and reigning world champion D Gukesh, sitting across from him broke into a smile. Nihal was ruing a missed chance while Gukesh was relieved to have gotten away with a draw. These were scenes from the end of Round 1 of the Chennai Grand Masters on Wednesday.
Three of the day’s four games ended in draws while the only decisive result was the one between Alireza Firouzja and Pranesh M, which the French-Iranian Grandmaster won to take an early lead in the tournament.
Incidentally, it was by winning this tournament three years ago that Gukesh qualified for the Candidates. This is his first tournament appearance in his hometown, Chennai, since he turned world champion two years ago. “I forgot about that. It was not a great game, but playing in Chennai is nice.”
Gukesh will defend his crown later this year, against fellow 20-year-old, Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov. World No.6 Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who is in Chennai for the tournament, revealed that he is part of countryman Sindarov’s team. “I had joined his training camp a week before the Candidates. For the World Championship match, for sure, I will be part of his team. He’s my friend, he’s close to me and I will help him,” he said.
For Gukesh, who has been struggling with form and finished at the bottom in Norway Chess, his last classical tournament, it was a tough start in Chennai.
Playing with the White pieces against Nihal, he didn’t get much out of the opening. Nihal played the Pirc Defense and Gukesh spoke of panicking after he saw 20…d5 on the board. “It was pretty tricky but I think his Rd1 plan was not accurate.”
Gukesh burnt through his clock, was dangerously low on time at one point but still managed to defend his way to safety. “For sure in the endgame there were some missed chances,” Nihal reflected. “ Apparently, objectively, it was never really winning. I should have tried better for sure. Gukesh had some good preparation, but was spending too much time and being a bit too slow. He defended extremely well like he always does.”
Results: Nodirbek Abdusattorov drew Hans Niemann, Arjun Erigaisi drew Dmitri Andreikin, M Pranesh lost to Alireza Firouzja, Gukesh D drew Nihal Sarin.
