Gukesh overcomes Erigaisi challenge to jump to second spot in Norway Chess

 Reigning world champion D Gukesh continued to turn adversity into opportunity as he wriggled out of a virtually intractable position to beat compatriot Arjun Erigaisi for the first time ever in a classical game and jump to sole second position after round 7 of the Norway Chess.

As has been the trend in Gukesh's campaign in this elite six-payer double round-robin tournament, the teenager, playing with white, showed nerves of steel to secure his second consecutive win, without going through the rigmarole of an Armageddon tie-break, to take sweet revenge for his loss to Erigaisi earlier in Round 2.

The win, which came after a nerve-wracking victory against defending champion and world No.1 Magnus Carlsen, saw Gukesh, 19, overtake the 34-year-old Norwegian on the points table with 11.5 points.

This was also Gukesh's first win in three attempts against Erigaisi, who had beaten the world champion at the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee to spoil his title-winning chances, and then again in Round 2 here.

With three more rounds to go, pole sitter American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana, who defeated Wei Yi of China, is on 12.5 points.

Carlsen is third with 11 points following his Armageddon win against another American Grandmaster and world No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura, who is fourth with 8.5 points.

Erigaisi dropped to fifth position with 7.5 points following the loss, while Wei Yi is placed sixth with 6.5 points.

For the first three-and-a-half hours of the game, Gukesh was on the defensive but finally managed to up his game to earn a win, tying down his opponent in time trouble. Erigaisi faltered that wee bit, which gave Gukesh an opening that he exploited and forced his opponent to resign after some intense play.

"Probably I was just losing it at some point. I was just slowly getting outplayed. From the opening nothing went my way but once I got to this position I just had to keep making moves which doesn't lose on the spot and in the time scrambles things happen," Gukesh told the broadcaster after the match.

Analysing the game, Gukesh's Polish coach Grzegorz Gajewski said, though it was not the best game played by the reigning world champion but he was happy that he had pulled it off.

"Probably not his best game ever, at least not the first half of the game, but definitely a very good second half of the game, so happy with that."

On whether the win on Monday was because of a change of mindset following Gukesh's come-from-behind victory against Carlsen on Sunday, Gajewski said, "When you're in such trouble (as in Sunday’s game) and you keep fighting and you get rewarded for it, you have even more faith that it makes sense to keep fighting.

"So, on the very next day (against Erigaisi), when you're again in trouble, you definitely know what to do, you just keep fighting," opined Gukesh’s coach.

He added that Gukesh was aiming for playing the perfect games, where the margin of error was bare minimum, which was finally contributing to his success here.

"He's demanding the very highest level of accuracy and precision from you (opponent), and if you're not up to it, you might mess up the position even if you're number one in the world,” said the Pole.

On whether the win against Erigaisi was bigger than the victory over Carlsen, given that Gukesh had never beaten his Indian counterpart ever in Classical chess before the win on Monday, the coach said, "Yes, definitely, Erigaisi is a very difficult opponent to beat, but I would not compare the two games.

“You really have to achieve a lot to be compared with Magnus in any regard. (For Monday’s game) Gukesh was just focused. It was nice, definitely very nice yesterday (to beat Carlsen), but today is a new challenge and after that there is another challenge.

"Gukesh was just making moves; he was completely in the zone from the first move to the last move… He has extraordinary calculation abilities, which combined with his fighting spirit help him defend so many positions,” added the Pole.

The Carlsen vs Nakamura game was interesting as the two players agreed to a draw after just 21 moves, with both having about an hour-and-a-half each left on the clock. In the Armageddon, Carlsen defeated the world No.2 to log in 1.5 points.

In the women's section, Ukrainian GM Anna Muzychuk got the better of two-time world rapid champion Koneru Humpy in Armageddon tie-break, while GM R. Vaishali fell apart in time trouble against China’s Lei Tingjie.

Ju Wenjun is leading the table with 11.5 points, followed by Muzychuk (11 points) in second and Humpy in third with 10.5 points.

Results (Round 7)

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Open: D Gukesh (Ind – 11.5 points) bt Arjun Erigaisi (Ind – 7.5); Fabiano Caruana (USA – 12.5) bt Wei Yi (Chn – 6.5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor – 11) bt Hikaru Nakamura (USA – 8.5) in Armageddon tie-break.

Women: Lei Tingjie (Chn – 9) bt R Vaishali (Ind – 8); Ju Wenjun (Chn – 11.5 points) bt Sara Khadem (Esp - 6); Koneru Humpy (Ind - 10.5) lost to Anna Muzychuk (Ukr – 11) in Armageddon tie-break.