Fabiano Caruana has painful slip up vs Arjun Erigaisi, Gukesh's winning streak ends, ‘Human' Magnus Carlsen blunders whole piece in loss

Indian Express

3 days ago

'This tournament could have very easily been over,' declared Hikaru Nakamura on the Norway Chess broadcast with an undisguised smile on his face as he watched his ashen-faced compatriot Fabiano Caruana extend his hand in resignation to Arjun Erigaisi in round 8 of the strongest invitational tournament of the year.
But with two rounds remaining at Norway Chess, the tournament is anything but over. Arjun's victory in 71 moves over leader Caruana ensured that at least five players head into the second rest day of the tournament with their tails up: leader Caruana (12.5 points) finds himself being chased by Magnus Carlsen (12), Nakamura (11.5), Gukesh (11.5), and Arjun (10.5). Wei Yi is last with eight points, but each outright win earns players three points, meaning two straight wins against his next two opponents Gukesh and Nakamura might just ensure him a title. It's very unlikely. But on a day when Carlsen had blundered an entire piece against him for no compensation in return — and then lost! — the Chinese grandmaster cannot be faulted for believing in miracles.
Arjun's win over Caruana was another reason to believe in miracles. Till Arjun had made his 49th move, the American was winning. The game, and possibly, the Norway Chess title.
But the time control at Norway Chess — with players getting just 120 minutes on the clock, with 10-second increments kicking in from move 41 — has been brutal for all players. World champion Gukesh struggled with it for his first two games. So have other players. On Tuesday, it was Caruana's chance to blink under time pressure.
As he made the 49th move, the eval bar was indicating a runaway win for Caruana.
'I'm not sure where the help is coming from (for Arjun), there are so many threats. Caruana is getting to your king, one way or another,' said Cristian Chirila, one of Caruana's seconds and the co-host of the C-Squared Podcast with the American GM, at one stage on the Norway Chess broadcast.
But at that stage, Caruana had just 40 seconds on his clock. Arjun had a minute and 54 seconds. Over the next eight moves — 49… Be4 (mistake with Re4 being the best as per engine) 50. Qf4 Qxc3 (inaccuracy with Ra2 being the best move) 51. Be3 Bg6 52. g4 hxg4 53. h5 Bxh5 54. Qf5+ Bg6 55. Qxg4 Qe5+ (blunder with Qc7+ being best move) 56. Rg3 Qh5+ (mistake with Qxg3+ being best move) — Arjun and the oppressive clock had fashioned a turnaround. What was also notable was that in that phase, Caruana had gobbled up three of Arjun's pawns. And yet, his position was worsening on the board.
'This game pretty much symbolises Arjun's style. Go crazy, try to play for tactical chances everywhere, sometimes it's going to work, sometimes it's not going to work!' Nakamura said. 'If you look at yesterday, I got the sense that when Arjun was down a pawn and then down two pawns, he was still trying to play for complications and trying to win the game. I feel that this is a similar situation. Always going for complications. It's insane actually.'
For the last two games, Gukesh has managed to turn around losing positions to fashion wins over Carlsen and Arjun. But Nakamura was in no mood to allow the Indian teenager similar concessions.
Nakamura gained an edge on the board by move 20 and never relinquished his grip on the game — unlike Carlsen and Caruana — gaining tiny advantages till Gukesh resigned on move 50.
'Gukesh's results have been very good. But if we're being objective about the chess, I think he's played horribly (at Norway Chess),' Nakamura told Indian media after the win. 'He should have lost to Magnus. He was completely lost against Arjun. Even against Fabiano, he was also losing in that game. So it's very, very hard to judge what his play is.'
Nakamura then praised Gukesh for his mental resilience.
'When I look at his game, one of the big things that he has that I would say Arjun and Praggnanandhaa don't have is that he's very mentally strong. I think he's a lot less emotional than the other two players. And that has served him very well, especially in this tournament,' said Nakamura before praising Gukesh's defensive skills.
'Today, I thought there were probably three or four moments when I was winning. But even then I still had to find more moves to convert. He's definitely showing very, very strong defensive skills.'
Elsewhere, the Wei Yi vs Carlsen game saw the world no 1 blunder a knight in the Armageddon after he had evaded his opponent's tactic to play out a quick draw in the classical portion.
As soon as Wei picked off Carlsen's undefended knight, the former world champion laughed at himself for making such an error.
Wei explained later that because of his defeat in the previous round, he had been unable to sleep. Consequently he had tried to play out an easy draw in the classical against wantaway Carlsen and then take his chances in the Armageddon format, where the player with white pieces (in this case Wei) has 10 minutes to get a win while the player with black pieces has just seven minutes, but they only need to draw to be victorious.
'I was happy to beat Magnus but I want to say sorry this time,' Wei said later like tennis players do when they win a point with the ball hitting the net cord. 'In Armageddon he just blundered in a solid position.'
'I think Magnus is getting used to joining the club, being human. Obviously, as you get older, you start to make more mistakes,' Nakamura said in an interview with Take Take Take. 'I actually thought my game against him yesterday, Armageddon, was extremely sloppy by both of us, so it's not a huge surprise. But I think after that loss to Gukesh, Magnus just kind of zoned out completely. Happens.'
(The writer is in Stavanger at the invitation of Norway Chess. Norway Chess is live streamed on Sony LIV.)
Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More