How a blunder cost D Gukesh his dream showdown against Magnus Carlsen in Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour

Gukesh Dommaraju had finally fulfilled his dream of becoming the youngest world champion in chess history after defeating Chinese Grandmaster Ding Liren in the FIDE World Championship in Singapore in December. And even before he could fly back home for the month-long celebrations that would follow, he had already set his sights on his next target – testing himself against the best in the world, Magnus Carlsen to be more specific.

On Saturday, the 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster finally got the opportunity to face the world No 1 for the first time since he pulled off one of the most extraordinary feats in chess history, albeit in a different format.

Gukesh, the only Indian competing at the opening event of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Weissenhaus, Germany after Viswanathan Anand’s abrupt withdrawal, had an underwhelming run in the Round Robin stage on Friday and Saturday.

Seven of the eight games that he had played before the showdown against Carlsen had ended in a draw, six of them on the trot. And he had suffered only his third defeat since being crowned world champion at the hands of Iranian-French Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja , in just 27 moves at that.

None of that, however, would have mattered for Gukesh if he was able to beat Carlsen at the format that he has been trying to champion in recent months, even at the expense of world governing body FIDE.

Similarities with Ding’s blunder in Singapore

It was a blunder by Ding in Move 55 in the 14th and final Classical game that cost him the world championship and sealed Gukesh’s historic triumph on 12 December. Realising he had boxed himself into a corner by moving his rook two squares down the ‘F’ file to the second rank, the 32-year-old resigned after the next three moves.

There were some interesting parallels between that contest and the Gukesh-Carlsen showdown on Saturday . Like his opponent in Singapore, Gukesh was playing with white pieces. Both games witnessed ambitious decisions being made early in the game, with the Indian initiating a bishop exchange by moving his piece from one end of the board (a1) to the other (h8) in the fourth move. And in both cases, the game was largely in a balanced state for a majority of its duration, until the dramatic twist that came in the form of a blunder towards the end.

In Singapore, Gukesh was doing everything in his power to fight on even when Ding made repeated offers for a draw, knowing the Chinese GM would have the upper hand in the tie-breaker that would have been played in the shorter rapid and blitz formats. And it was that never-say-die attitude that led to a lapse in concentration on his opponent’s part.

At the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort though, Gukesh was up against a player who is considered among the best to have ever played the game, with Carlsen starting to get his mojo back after an underwhelming Day 1 by collecting two wins and a draw. Things appeared fairly in control for Gukesh until he decided to move his knight to d5 while attempting to lay a trap around Carlsen’s king.

It was a role reversal for Gukesh on Saturday as this time he was the only raising the white flag just four moves after committing a huge mistake. Carlsen’s not the kind of player who will allow his opponent to wriggle his way out his grasp in such a situation, and was able to seal things off in style with a clinical endgame.

Fortunately for Gukesh, the loss against Carlsen did not translate to an early exit from the Weissenhaus tournament as he managed to scrape through to the knockouts by finishing among the top eight – at the very bottom of the qualification zone though.

Which means he will not have the luxury of picking his opponent for the quarter-finals, where the time control will expand from the 10 minutes that had been set for the Round Robin stage to the Classical 90+30, something that Gukesh is a lot more familiar with.

That said, he could find himself seated opposite the Norwegian five-time world champion later this week, possibly as early as Sunday when the quarter-finals get underway. Having learnt a valuable lesson on Saturday, Gukesh will hope to come back a lot stronger this time, especially with a lot more time in hand.