Reigning world champion D Gukesh emerged the winner in a thrilling Armageddon tie-break against American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana but Arjun Erigaisi succumbed to Magnus Carlsen’s intuitive skills on a mixed day for the Indians in the ‘Open’ category of Norway Chess here.
World No. 3 Caruana enjoyed a pawn advantage for most part of the Round 4 game against his Indian opponent, who turned 19 on Thursday, but the American could not convert it into a significant advantage in over four hours of engrossing chess thanks to Gukesh’s superb defensive skills.
The Armageddon tie-break was applied to break the stalemate. Both Gukesh and Erigaisi are now tied fourth in the six-payer field with 4.5 points apiece, while Carlsen is the sole leader with 8 points, followed by Caruana on 7 and American GM Hikaru Nakamura on 5.5.
With Gukesh, playing with white pieces and having a huge three-minute advantage in Armageddon – white gets 10 minutes and black seven – after coming out of a tricky situation during the Classical slugfest less than 15 minutes earlier, the Indian overpowered Caruana on the clock to take 1.5 points from the game.
A win in the Classical format earns the players in this double-round robin format tournament three points, while a draw fetches them one point each. However, the players have to immediately play the Armageddon tie-break to break the deadlock.
Gukesh, following his magnificent Classical win in the third round against world No.2 Nakamura and a thrilling come-from behind victory against Caruana, is on 4.5 points in a six-player field led by five-time world champion Carlsen, who is in sloe lead with eight points.
Gukesh later said that he doesn’t really enjoy playing on his birthday but would gladly take this crucial morale-boosting win.
“Most of my birthdays I end up losing the game, so glad it did not repeat in the classical. When I was playing, I felt fine, but when I was losing, I was like, ‘ok, not again’,” said Gukesh.
The youngest world champion found himself down a pawn in a very tricky position early in the contest.
With the unforgiving time control in place, where only a 10-second increment per move is given instead of 30 seconds after the 40th move, the situation can quickly get out of control, but Gukesh kept his balance to emerge from the tough situation and take the match in the Armageddon tie-break – something which is not his forte.
“The Classical game could have easily gone bad, but luckily, I managed to save it in the time scramble, and then Armageddon was very good,” he said later.
World No. 1 Carlsen showed his tactical superiority in the endgame against India No. 2 Erigaisi, who played with black pieces, to earn three full points.
The Norwegian superstar, who had lost two Armageddon games in the last two rounds, made a strong statement with this win on home turf.
This was the second setback for Erigaisi in two days after he had lost to Caruana in Round 3.
Carlsen played the English Opening against Erigaisi and was content with the outcome, but less with the speed at which he was playing.
The Norwegian ace explained his hesitation to go for quick moves later, saying it was down to the number of choices he faced in an unfamiliar position.
“You get presented with more and more difficult choices and eventually you go wrong,” said Carlsen, the defending champion.
In another action-packed day in the women’s section, India’s R. Vaishali earned a crucial half point by overcoming Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk in the Armageddon tie-break, while world champion Wenjun Ju beat Koneru Humpy in the time-controlled format after a stalemate in the Classical game.
Humpy, though, still shared the lead with Muzychuk on seven points each, while Vaishali was placed 6th with 3.5 points.
Results: (Open)
Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 8 points) bt Arjun Erigaisi (Ind, 4.5 points); D Gukesh (Ind, 4.5 points) bt Fabiano Caruana (USA, 7 points) in Armageddon tie-break; Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 5.5) lost to Wei Yi (Chn, 4).
(Women) Sara Khadem (Esp, 5) bt Li Tingjie (Chn, 4); Ju Wenjun (Chn, 5.5) bt Koneru Humpy (Ind, 7) in Armageddon tie-break; R. Vaishali (Ind, 3,5) bt Anna Muzychuk (Ukr, 7) in Armageddon tie-break. (PTI)
