Blunder, zugzwang, resignation: How one move from Gukesh forced him to lose from a drawn position vs Alireza Firoujza

Indian Express

14-05-2025

Of all the words in the chess vocabulary, zugzwang is probably the one that chess players find the most irritating (Or the most pleasing). The word is a gift to the sport from the Germans, and refers to a situation in a chess battle where you get arm-twisted into making a bad move — because no good ones are possible. It's one of those excruciating moments in chess where you wish you could be allowed to pass on a move because the only moves you can make significantly weaken your chances. Reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju lost his round 6 clash against Alireza Firoujza at the Superbet Chess Classic 2025 in Bucharest late on Tuesday after a blunder on move 53 with his dark-squared bishop, which allowed the French-Iranian grandmaster to arm-twist him into a zugzwang which then led to a resignation with checkmate unavoidable.
Defeat to Alireza in round 6 means that Gukesh is still without a win in the entire tournament in Bucharest. The world champion has lost twice now at the event, and is currently 10th in the 10-player standings. Since he became the youngest world champion in the history of the sport at the age of 18 last year, Gukesh has had limited success on the chess board. He did almost win the title at Tata Steel Chess in Wijk aan Zee at the start of the year. He was denied there after losing the final game to Arjun Erigaisi, and then losing to Pragg in a tie-break. Since then, he's played in two Freestyle Chess events where there has been little reason to celebrate. But those were freestyle chess events — a variant of the sport that players have called a completely different sport altogether.
Just before Gukesh made the fateful move — 53… Bg5 — the game was ambling towards a peaceful draw.
In fact, on the live broadcast of the game on the Saint Louis Chess Club YouTube page, grandmaster Peter Svidler who was analysing games, had declared, 'This is not going to go anywhere for a while'. He had just signalled to the broadcast team behind the scenes to switch the graphics to the game between Fabiano Caruana and Bogdan-Daniel Deac. And then, Gukesh shifted his bishop to g5, and changed the contours of the game.
'Sir, what are you doing, sir?' said a stunned Svidler, who has been working as a trainer for another member of India's golden generation, Praggnanandhaa, since last year.
'Why would you (do that), why would you remove it from the long diagonal? Why isn't the bishop on the long diagonal? I do not understand,' he shrugged.
Another veteran grandmaster, GM Yasser Seirawan, who was also on the commentary panel, was equally baffled.
'That bishop to g5 is a move we will question for the ages,' said Seirawan. 'The bishop was on a magnificent square. This is the world champion we are talking about, walking into an obvious zugzwang. Bishop to g5 was totally uncalled for. That's it! That blunders the pawn!'
READ MORE: Why Vishy Anand prescribes a 'take it easy policy' for teenage world beaters like Gukesh, Pragg and Arjun Erigaisi
What Seirawan meant was, as soon as Gukesh had shifted his bishop to g5 rather than putting it on e5, or even c3, it allowed Alireza to plant his rook on b7, threatening Gukesh's only remaining pawn on f7. Gukesh moved his pawn forward by a square, which allowed his rival to slide his rook behind the pawn. Now, Gukesh had no option but to move his bishop away from protecting his pawn, and as soon as he did, Alireza rook gobbled it up while also delivering a check on Gukesh's king. After some desperate dodging, Gukesh surrendered 13 moves later.
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Before that error from Gukesh, he and Alireza had played out a rollercoaster middlegame that saw the Frenchman, playing with white pieces, hold an edge as early as the 18th move after the world champion opted not to castle his king to safety and tuck it away behind a column of two doubled pawns. But Gukesh had managed to maneuver his way out of trouble as his opponent had courted time trouble by the 23rd move and then squander his edge right around the 30th move, when Gukesh spent his time well to find moves that kept him alive.
Gukesh will now face the three Americans in his final three games — Wesley So, Levon Aronian and Caruana.