Gukesh turns tables; Magnus Carlsen bangs one after Indian t
Gukesh turns tables; Magnus Carlsen bangs one after Indian triumphs in Norway Chess showdown
World champion D Gukesh got his revenge on Magnus Carlsen as he pounced on a blunder by the world no.1 to defeat him for the first time in a classical game
STAVANGER — World champion D Gukesh got his revenge on Magnus Carlsen as he
pounced on a blunder by the world no.1 to defeat him for the first time in a
classical game, leaving the Norwegian superstar so frustrated that he banged
his fist on the board after Round 6 of Norway Chess Tournament here.
The win on Sunday propelled 19-year-old Gukesh to third
position with 8.5 points and he is just one point shy of joint leaders Carlsen
and American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana.
"There wasn't much I could do. It was just clearly
lost (his position)...luckily he (Carlsen) got into a time scramble," the
reticent Chennai-lad said after the eagerly-watched contest.
"First Classical win over Magnus, not the way I
expected (or) wanted it to be but I will take it. I was just trying to make
moves (today) which kind of were tricky for him," he explained.
"...99 out of 100 times I would lose… just a lucky
day," Gukesh later told the tournament broadcasters.
Five-time world champion Carlsen seemed to have the
upper-hand almost throughout the four-hour-long contest but a critical mistake
allowed Gukesh to turn the tables on the Norwegian and secure a remarkable win.
Carlsen realised his mistake but by then it was too late.
The Norwegian superstar vented his frustration by banging his fist on the
table, causing the chess board to be dishevelled.
Disbelief and frustration was writ large on his face as
he shook hands with Gukesh before placing all the pieces back on the board and
walking away patting the winner on the back.
Gukesh was calm personified amid all this. He closed his
eyes for a moment after the rather tense handshake with a clearly upset
Carlsen.
The victory had come after a crushing Round 1 loss to
iconic player which had cast a shadow on whether Gukesh would be able to
overcome Carlsen's challenge in the reverse game.
Arjun Erigaisi, following an Armageddon tie-break win
against China's Wei Yi, is tied fourth with Hikaru Nakamura on 7.5 points in a
tournament where virtually all the six players have a chance of winning the
prestigious title.
Carlsen's time
scramble gone wrong
Carlsen, playing with black pieces, had earlier outplayed
Gukesh with a near-perfect game. But the Indian kept prolonging the proceedings
by finding the right moves to survive.
Eventually, Carlsen dropped his knight, and Gukesh pounced
on his opponent's error to go for the kill.
"One thing I learned from this tournament was time
scrambles can go out of control," said Gukesh.
On his loss in Round 1 despite being in an advantageous
position, Gukesh said, "I don't know, I'm still kind of shaken from that
game. I don't know what happened, basically.
"There wasn't much I could do; it was clearly
lost," he added.
Gukesh's Polish coach Grzegorz Gajewski said the win was
a huge confidence booster for the world champion.
"It's going to give him a bump of confidence.
Because once you've done it, you know you can do it again. And that's the
plan," said Gajewski.
"After the first game (which Gukesh lost to
Carlsen), we saw that the main problem was time management, and because of the
time trouble, he managed to lose the position that he should not have lost.
"So, we decided that we had to correct this time
management, and already in the game with Hikaru (Nakamura), we could witness
this improvement and progress," he added.
The tournament saw another intense day in the women's
section with R Vaishali getting the better of Koneru Humpy in the Armageddon
tie-break.
Results (Round 6):
(Open) D Gukesh (Ind – 8.5) bt Magnus Carlsen (Nor –
9.5); Arjun Erigaisi (Ind – 7.5) bt Wei Yi (Chn – 6.5) in Armageddon tie-break;
Fabiano Caruana (USA – 9.5) bt Hikaru Nakamura (USA – 7.5) in Armageddon
tie-break. (Women) R Vaishali (Ind – 8) bt Koneru Humpy (Ind – 9.5) in
Armageddon tie-break; Ju Wenjun (Chn – 8.5) bt Lei Tingjie (Chn – 6) in
Armageddon tie-break; Anna Myzychuk (Ukr – 9.5) bt Sara Khadem (Esp – 6) in
Armageddon tie-break.
