When the top players of the world collide, it doesn’t make a lot of noise, sparks don’t fly and yet, what happens over the board is nothing less than fireworks. That is what the chess fans across the globe are treated to.
D Gukesh turned the tournament on its head in the third round by beating world No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura. It was a win within the normal time control, which fetched three points, and brought the world champion right back in it after defeats in the first two rounds. Playing with white for the first time in the competition, the player turning 19 today was in his elements. Joint-leader overnight, the player from the USA had no answer to what the world No. 3 asked of him.
The other joint-leader lost too. Arjun Erigaisi of India, who had beaten Gukesh in the second round, went down against No. 5 Fabiano Caruana. The player from the USA is the sole leader after the third round with six points. After having started with a defeat against Nakamura, he has beaten No. 8 Wei Yi of China and No. 4 Erigaisi. Both were three-pointers achieved within the normal time control.
Carlsen loses tie-breaker again
In an interesting development, Magnus Carlsen suffered a second successive defeat in the ‘armageddon’ tie-breaker after the game ended in a draw. This time, the world No. 1’s conqueror was No. 8 Wei Yi of China. Carlsen, the undisputed top player and six-time winner of this prestigious event, had lost to Nakamura in a similar manner in the second round. He has five points.
With seven rounds to go, the ranking order looks like this — Caruana (six points), Carlsen (five), Erigaisi and Nakamura (4.5 each), Gukesh (3) and Wei (2.5). On his 19th birthday today, Gukesh faces Caruana and Erigaisi meets Carlsen. Another riveting round unfolding no doubt.
Humpy joint leader, Vaishali loses
Things are equally interestingly poised in the women’s section. Koneru Humpy of India is the joint-leader with Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine on six points. After losing to Anna in Round 2, Humpy turned it around against Sara Khadem representing Spain. She won in normal time control to reach six points. Anna is also on six, following her win in the tie-breaker against Lei Tingjie of China.
R Vaishali suffered her second successive loss in the tie-breaker, this time against world champion Ju Wenjun of China. She had lost to Humpy in normal time control in the first round and against Tingjie in the tie-breaker in the second. With two points, she is tied at the bottom with Sara in the field of six players. The two Chinese players have four points each.
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