Gukesh stages comeback to defeat Anish Giri in Tata Steel Masters opener

Receiving his Khel Ratna on Friday and then taking a flight to Amsterdam, Gukesh reached here barely hours before the start of the first round

Wijk Aan Zee: World Champion D Gukesh got lucky and came back from a tough position to beat Anish Giri of Holland in the first round of the Tata Steel Masters now underway here.

Receiving his Khel Ratna on Friday and then taking a flight to Amsterdam, Gukesh reached here barely hours before the start of the first round. That probably had its toll on the young Indian but he got into top gear when it mattered the most. The game was almost looking lost when Gukesh found moves that left Giri with some difficult choices and the Dutchman found all but the final winning move.

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It was an eventful first round with three decisive games and making the most of his white pieces was P Harikrishna who crashed through the defences of compatriot world number four Arjun Erigaisi.

Leon Luke Mendonca let a nearly won position slip out of hand as he made several errors that gave German Vincent Keymer a winning start while R Praggnanandhaa put up a stiff resistance against Nodirbek Abdusattorov to draw eventually.

The other games of the first round also ended in draws. Defending champion Wei Yi of China played out a draw with top seed Fabiano Caruana of United States, Max Warmerdam of Holland shared the point with Alexey Sarana of Serbia while another Dutchman Jorden van Foreest drew with Vladimir Fedoseev of Slovenia.

In the challengers’ section R Vaishali got off to a winning start against World’s youngest International Master Oro Faustino of Argentina but Divya Deshmukh went down to higher ranked Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan.

Gukesh started off with the Catalan opening as white and went for complications at the first opportunity in the middle game by sacrificing a knight for two pawns. Giri had to find some correct moves and he parted with his rook for another minor piece to gain the upper hand.

For Giri things could not have been better as Gukesh was left with under a minute on his clock to make 14 moves with a thirty seconds increment after each move.

As it happened in the game, Gukesh was on three occasions left with barely a few seconds on his clock but hung in there. After 33 moves Gukesh was hopelessly lost but Giri blundered two moves later to hand the full point on a platter. Gukesh won in 42 moves.

Harikrishna was surprised as Arjun went for the Sicilian Dragon as black but found his way once Arjun decided to part with his queen for two rooks. The technicalities remained but that is Harikrishna’s forte and he did not disappoint his fans. The game lasted 63 moves.

Leon Luke Mendonca almost outplayed Vincent Keymer and had an extra pawn as white out of a King pawn game. However, in a bizarre turn of events, Mendonca first let his advantage slip and finally a blackout happened for the Indian as he walked in to a checkmate web.

Vaishali was at the top of her game against 11-years old Oro Faustino who played white. In the middle game Vaishali gave a piece for three pawns and did not look back.

Pairings round 1 Masters: D Gukesh (Ind) bt Anish Giri (Ned); P Harikrishna (Ind) bt Arjun Erigaisi (Ind); Leon Luke Mendonca (Ind) lost to Vincent Keymer (Ger); R Praggnanandhaa (Ind) drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb); Wei Yi (Chn) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Usa); Max Warmerdam (Ned) drew with Alexey Sarana (Srb); Jorden van Foreest (Ned) drew with Vladimir Fedoseev (Slo).

Challengers: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) lost to Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb); Oro Faustino (Arg) lost to R Vaishali (Ind); Nguyen Thai van Dam (Cze) beat Arthur Pijpers (Ned); Aydin Sulemanli (Aze) drew with Benjamin Bok (Ned); Ediz Gurez (Tur) beat Irina Bulmaga (Rom); Erwin L’Ami (Ned) drew with Frederic Svane (Ger); Mioyi Lu (Chn) bt Nodirbek Kazybek (Kaz).