Then the world champion turned the game and India’s fortunes on their head, powering them to a 2.5-1.5 win over Germany in Round 9 of the Fide Chess Olympiad in Samarkand. Bengaluru: For much of Friday, D Gukesh looked headed for defeat.
In the women’s section, India defeated Uzbekistan 3-1, with Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal finding wins. India, at 15 points, alongside Kazakhstan and Mongolia, are two points behind table toppers China. “Towards time control I just completely lost track, White should be winning and I was just trying to hang in there – my knights were bad and my King was weak. On a day when Gukesh won in brilliant fashion, his World Championship challenger suffered a loss against USA’s Wesley So, but it wasn’t enough as the top-seeded Americans lost to Uzbekistan.
“For a long time, I felt I should be slightly better but I couldn’t find a breakthrough,” Gukesh, who had Black against Alexander Donchenko on Board 4, told Fide. “Somehow all the tricks worked for me,” he said, beaming. Once Gukesh had the win in the bag, teammates R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi who had been pressing hard and taking risks on their respective boards, shut their games down and took the draw. Koneru Humpy and India’s win-machine Savitha Shri drew their games.
Gukesh needed the win as much as his team did. It was a cortisone shot of self-belief.
