D Gukesh turned 19 in faraway Stavanger, with a victory in tie-break against Fabiano Caruana in Round 4 of Norway Chess. The world champion and No. 3 beating the No. 5 is not stop-press news, but given the way Gukesh started the tournament, this was a welcome verdict, which revives his campaign. He is placed joint-fourth with Arjun Erigaisi on 4.5 points. Six more rounds remain.
Erigaisi suffered a defeat against No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, who jumped to sole lead with eight points. The Norwegian is the only one in the six-player field yet to lose a game under normal time control. His defeats in the second and third rounds were in tie-breakers. No. 5 Caruana of the USA is second on seven points, while his compatriot Hikaru Nakamura in third on 5.5.
Gukesh was under pressure as well as scrutiny. He had lost to Carlsen and Erigaisi with black pieces and had zero points against his name after two rounds. The youngster turned it around with white against Nakamura. He beat the world No. 2 under normal time control and did well to have the last laugh against Caruana, whose position was better for a sizeable part of the game.
Commentating for Chess.com India, Grandmaster Sahaj Grover said repeatedly that Gukesh was in danger and his best chance lay in stretching the game as long as possible, so that he finds something or his rival makes a mistake. The Indian soldiered on despite being a pawn down, he took the game deep to create a situation where it was not possible for black to penetrate.
“The last two days were pretty good,” Gukesh told the official broadcaster, sitting next to Viswanathan Anand, after the game. “The first two days I felt like I was playing decent chess, but somehow my time management was just horrible. After I improved that, it’s been pretty good. Today, in time trouble, I managed to save it. And the Armageddon (tie-breaker) was quite clean.”
Erigaisi was the joint-leader after the second round with Nakamura. He remains on four points after back-to-back defeats under normal time control against Nakamura and Carlsen. Playing with white, indisputably the best player in the world imposed himself on the game gradually, despite resistance from the 21-year-old. He kept pressing and finally wore Erigaisi down.
Humpy stays joint-leader
In the women’s section, Koneru Humpy continues to share the lead with Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine. Both lost on tie-breaker in the seventh round. While Humpy came up second best against Ju Wenjun of China, Muzychuk was beaten by R Vaishali. It was the first positive result in the event for Vaishali, who moved to 3.5 points. Humpy and Muzychuk are on seven each.