Another costly error sinks Gukesh at Prague Chess Festival

D Gukesh suffered another setback at the Prague International Chess Festival after a late blunder handed Nodirbek Abdusattorov victory. Despite dominating much of the game, the Indian faltered in time trouble, slipping further down the standings

Prague (Czech Republic): The fortunes of World Champion D Gukesh did not change for the fifth day running as the Indian blundered from a position of strength to lose to nemesis Nodirbek Abdusattorov at the Prague International Chess Festival here.

Just a month back, Gukesh had lost to Abdusattorov through a blunder from a decent position during the Tata Steel Masters, but the fifth round here was even more heartbreaking as the Indian did everything right for the major part of the middle game and seemed to be cruising to an easy victory.

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Employing a new strategy as black, Gukesh tormented the white king early in the opening and created enough weaknesses for the computer to suggest that he was closing in on his first victory in the Masters section of the tournament.

However, the ticking of the clock had its final say as the Indian faltered in the closing stages of the first time control.

Abdusattorov almost returned the favour, but this was simply not Gukesh’s day as another blunder saw White advancing his pawn to glory.

If Nodirbek was lucky, there seems to be no stopping the Dutch Grandmaster Jorden van Foreest, who climbed to number 11 in the world rankings in live ratings following his fourth victory in five games.

On the receiving end was Hans Moke Niemann of the United States, who made a single error that cast the die decisively in Foreest’s favour.

The day produced all decisive games in the 10-player round-robin tournament, and defending champion Aravindh Chithambaram succumbed to his third defeat in five games, giving David Anton Guijarro of Spain something to rejoice before the lone rest day.

Local star David Navara continued with his excellent run and ground down Nodirbek Yakubboev in what was certainly the game of the day, while in the other duel Iranian Parham Maghsoodloo scored over Vincent Keymer of Germany.

With Foreest on four points, Abdusattorov and Navara are close on his heels, half a point behind. Guijarro is the lone occupant of fourth spot on three points, half a point clear of Maghsoodloo, while Keymer is joint sixth on two points alongside Yakubboev.

Gukesh, Aravindh and Niemann occupy the last three spots on just 1.5 points.

In the Challengers’ section, World Women’s Cup winner Divya Deshmukh scored her first victory in the tournament at the expense of fellow Indian Surya Shekhar Ganguly to move to a 50 percent score. Finek Vanclav continues to lead the table with four points.

Results round 4: David Navara (Cze, 3.5) beat Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb, 2); Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 4) beat Hans Moke Niemann (USA, 1.5); Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 3.5) beat D Gukesh (Ind, 1.5); Aravindh Chithambaram (Ind, 1.5) lost to David Anton Guijarro (Esp, 3); Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri, 2.5) beat Vincent Keymer (Ger, 2).

Challengers: Jiner Zhu (Chn, 1.5) drew with Benjamin Gledura (Hun, 2); Jonas Buhl Bjerre (Den, 2.5) drew with Jachym Nemec (Cze, 3); Thomas Beerdsen (Ned, 3) drew with Stepn Hrbek (Cze, 3); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (Ind, 1) lost to Divya Deshmukh (Ind, 2.5); Finek Vanclav (Cze, 4) beat Daniil Yuffa (Esp, 1.5).