Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Goa
A tsunami of sorts took place in the coast of Goa on Saturday. D Gukesh was eliminated from the FIDE World Cup in the third round. In unquestionably the biggest upset of this edition of the event and in the recent history of the knockout competition, the world champion lost to Frederik Svane of Germany with white pieces.
Not in the best of form of late and having drawn two of his three games in the competition, Gukesh was still expected to put it across the player ranked 85th in the world. The Indian is ninth and this outcome is likely to push him out of the top-10 for the second time in three months. The 19-year-old was playing with white and a draw would have taken him to the tie-breakers taking place on Sunday. His 21-year-old opponent scuppered those plans and caused a tremor.
This will grab the headline in global chess and sharpen the claws of those who had been saying Gukesh is not a worthy world champion. While that presumption is unfounded, it’s a fact that the star from Chennai has been rather subdued this year after his historic triumph in the World Championship last year. This is not the first time that he has lost a player rated well below him. Fatigue, pressure of expectations can be reasons, but results of these games might trigger more of such talks.
When the World Cup got underway, all eyes were on Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa. They had been the movers and shakers in world chess for more than a year. While the youngsters gave a good account of themselves, unnoticed yet unmistakable was the performance of P Harikrishna. He became the first Indian to qualify for the fourth round in this edition of the knockout event.
Praggnanandhaa, Erigaisi and world junior champion R Pranav also made progress. M Pranesh and Diptayan Ghosh were eliminated, while Vidit Gujrathi, S Narayanan, Karthik Venkataraman headed for the tie-breakers to be played on Sunday in the shorter formats. These are not exactly big upsets, but from the point of view of Gukesh and Vidit, this was slightly underwhelming, considering their stature, world ranking and performance in the previous World Cup held in 2023, where both were quarter-finalists. Gukesh, of course, enhanced his credentials manifold by becoming the youngest-ever world champion last year.
Harikrishna was the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to win the junior world championship. He was among the most promising youngsters in the world for a while. However, he got somewhat sidelined following the triumphant arrival of the younger crop. A member of the Olympiad-winning Indian quintet last year, he is letting his game prove that he can’t be overlooked. Having played what has arguably the game of the tournament in the second round, the 39-year-old played out a draw with black against Belgian prodigy Daniel Dardha. It was enough for him to ensure progress after having won the first game in Round 3 a day earlier.
Praggnanandhaa had survived a scare in the previous round, where he was pushed to a spot in the tie-breakers before making it through by the narrowest of margins. He was under pressure against Robert Hovhannisyan of Armenia following a draw in the first game of this round. When it mattered, the Chennai player delivered and won with white. Pranav drew with Titas Stremavicius of Lithuania. That’s what he needed after having won the opening game of this round.
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