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India Today
a day ago
- Sport
- India Today
D Gukesh makes comeback to finish Day 1 of St. Louis Rapid and Blitz at third
Reigning world champion D Gukesh bounced back from a first-round loss to secure back-to-back wins to end Day 1 of the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament as joint-third in the standings. Gukesh lost to American Levon Aronian and then secured wins over Grigoriy Oparin and Liem Le Quang. The tournament is part of the Grand Chess tour. The Indian grand master was outplayed by Aronian in an intense battle before securing thumping wins over Oparin and Le Quang to end the day with four points out of a possible six. Aronian is currently the leader in the standings after winning all his three matches of the day. The American has been in fine form since winning the Freestyle Chess tournament in Las Vegas, and defeated key rivals Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France. advertisementFellow American Fabiano Caruana is in the second spot with five points as he secured two wins and one draw. Gukesh is tied in the third spot with Wesley So, with both men sitting on four points. Gukesh suffered heartbreak against Aronian due to extreme complexities arising from a Caro Kann defense game. Gukesh defeated Oparin in style but did face some issues against Le Quang. But he faltered under pressure Gukesh and allowed the Indian GM to pick up his second win of the day. ResultsRound 1: Levon Aronian (Usa) beat D Gukesh (Ind); Grigoriy Oparin (Usa) beat Liem Le Quang (Vie); Wesley So (Usa) drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Usa); Leinier Dominguez Perez (Usa) beat Sam Shankland (Usa).Round 2: Gukesh beat Oparin; Leim beat Shankland; Vachier-Lagrave lost to Aronian; Abdusattorov lost to Caruana; Dominguez drew with 3: Oparin lost to Vachier-Lagrave; Liem lost to Gukesh; Wesley beat Shankland; Aronian beat Abdusattorov; Caruana beat Dominguez. Standings1. Aronian (6); 2. Caruana (5); 3-4 Gukesh, Wesley (4 each); 5-6: Vachier-Lagrave, Dominguez (3 each); 7=8. Oparin, Liem (2 each); 9. Abdusattorov (1); 10. Shankland (10).- Ends
India Today
16-07-2025
- Sport
- India Today
Las Vegas Freestyle chess: Praggnanandhaa grouped with Carlsen, Gukesh opts out
R Praggnanandhaa has found himself grouped with World No.1 Magnus Carlsen in the same group, while Arjun Erigaisi and Vidit Gujrathi were put together in another pool for the 16-player Freestyle chess tournament in Las Vegas. World Champion D Gukesh will miss the tournament. Carlsen will once again start as the favourite for the tournament that will start late on Wednesday. The tournament saw a lot of pre-event activities that included the participation of NBA players. The 16-player Freestyle Chess event in Las Vegas carries a total prize pool of 750,000 US dollars with the winner taking home 200,000. Each group has eight players in the line up and the top four will progress to the next round while the bottom half will play against each other. advertisementGukesh misses the tournamentGukesh is missing the tournament as he will be playing the main event of the Grandmaster tour in about a month's time. Praggnanandhaa will start his campaign against Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan, a player who has been struggling at the previous edition of Grand Chess tour in Zagreb, Croatia. Carlsen will start the tournament against the winner of the first edition, Vincent Keymer of Germany, in his opening round. Erigaisi will be facing American Hans Nieman, who is making his debut in the Freestyle chess tournament, in his opening match. Gujrathi will face a big test against Fabiano Caruana of the United States in his opener. In a first, woman player Bibisara Assaubuyeva of Kazakhstan has been included in the lineup to take on the world's elite. Freestyle chess is the name given to Fischer random chess or chess 960, where the position of the pieces is randomly changed before the game version of chess has been gaining popularity as tame draws have been eliminated with the matches being more challenging from the get-go. - EndsMust Watch
NDTV
16-07-2025
- Sport
- NDTV
D Gukesh Opts Out As R Praggnanandhaa To Lead India's Charge At Las Vegas Freestyle Chess
R Praggnanandhaa found himself clubbed with Magnus Carlsen in the same group, while Arjun Erigaisi and Vidit Gujrathi were bunched together in the other pool of the 16-player Freestyle chess tournament to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. World number one Magnus Carlsen will yet again start as the favourite for the title in this edition that saw a lot of pre-event activities including participation of NBA players. The tournament-proper starts late on Wednesday. The event carries a total prize pool of USD 750,000 with 200,000 reserved for the winner. Each group has eight players in the line up and the top four will advance to the next stage while the bottom half will play against each other. World champion D Gukesh is going to give the event a miss as he will be playing the main event of the Grandmaster tour in about a month's time. The 19-year-old Praggnanandhaa will start his campaign against Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan, a player who was struggling at the previous edition of Grand Chess tour in Zagreb, Croatia. Carlsen will play the winner of the first edition, Vincent Keymer of Germany, in his opening round. American Hans Niemann will make his first appearance in the Freestyle chess tournament and take on Erigaisi in the opener. Gujrathi will take on Fabiano Caruana of United States. For the first time, a woman player, Bibisara Assaubuyeva of Kazakhstan, has been included in the lineup to compete against the world elite. Freestyle chess is a new name given to Fischer random chess or chess 960 where the position of the pieces is randomly changed at the start of the game. With little theory in the books, the version is gaining popularity as tame draws out of the openings have vanished and there are usually a lot of fighting games right from the beginning. PTI Cor PM PM PM PM (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Indian Express
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
‘Nice that I could win against Magnus from two losing positions in a row': Gukesh who topped rapid format at Zagreb
World classical champion D Gukesh was asked after Day 1 of Rapid chess at Zagreb if he was on Cloud Nine post beating Magnus Carlsen, a second time since Norway. His evenly pitched answer hinted at how unsurprised he was at achieving the fear. 'Yea, for sure. Three wins in a day feels quite good. First game was pretty good, second and third were not great but in rapid, you can't really have good positions all the time. I'm glad I managed to make most of them,' he told the organisers of Grand Chess tour. Elaborating on how he was upturning some pretty shabby positions, Gukesh added, 'Beating Magnus is always special for sure and I think this also gives bit more confidence. Because I just had a horrible position from the opening. I mixed up something really bad and then it's nice that I could win against Magnus from two losing positions in a row.' He was asked how he extricated himself from the meshes. 'It's not always easy. But you make the most of 'don't lose from this point'. Also against Fabiano, I had a pretty bad position. But atleast he was taking too much time so it was not really that big a practical disadvantage. Just one move at a time. Stay in the game,' he said. READ MORE | Garry Kasparov explains why playing Gukesh is 'like playing a computer': Have to beat him 5 times… he has many lives in each game Gukesh admitted to erring firstly on playing g6, as he 'mixed up something very bad in the opening.' What followed was a series of tangles he got caught in. His calm demeanour never lets on, but quite a chaos raged in his mind. 'At some point, I thought this was possible knight h5- g7. But you just get knight f1 – bishop , it's just too fast. Later I just realised I should play a4, I realised it later. I wasn't really sure of it. Just playing pretty bad. To be very honest. By knight to h5, I was already very uncomfortable here. By then somehow it feels like closed knights are on good squares, but they are not permanently good. Also the b5 was very weak. I didn't know what to do with them. I should go h5, should go …something like this I Could have done. It's tricky,' he said. READ MORE | Magnus Carlsen reacts to Gukesh defeat: 'Poor from me, got soundly punished… but all credit to Gukesh' He would proceed to play what the interviewer called a very counterintuitive – close position. 'But in fact it seems like if it opens up, then white king becomes weak? So you want to open up the position …?' he was asked. Gukesh would talk of the sudden counterplay bursting on him. 'It's tricky. The only moment when I realised I might have a chance was when I played c6. Initially I thought what he did was clever with b4. But after c6 it gets really tricky. Should be better but like suddenly when you face counterplay it's never easy.' One feature of Gukesh taking the lead before blitz kicks off was his impressive time management and always dictating pace when it's down to 5 minutes left on clock. He was asked if it was strategy. 'It's not always the case. Against Fabi, yes. He was taking too much time. So it's natural I put pressure. Against Magnus this game specifically was that. I had no choice but to play fast. With my bad positions. But ya good moves on good time is good time management,' he humbly accepted. READ MORE | Garry Kasparov explains why playing Gukesh is 'like playing a computer': Have to beat him 5 times… he has many lives in each game C6 was described as a completely wild option, one he assessed in 4 minutes 40 seconds. Gukesh ceded it had the desired impact. 'I was already too happy to get to this position. Two knights even if it's 4 minutes it's still tricky to handle all these knights with a kinda weak king. My king is quite safe. All the pawns are hanging. It wasn't precise. You just lose some pawns to get some attacks in. I was pretty optimistic about my chances here.' When told Garry Kasparov had said he would bet on Gukesh at this point just because he was playing his moves, making his decisions much more confidently, Gukesh said he had calculated it quickly. Too fast for Carlsen. 'It's just a much easier position for black in rapid. E4, he took some time, 3 minutes. I was kinda expecting rook c3 or rook c5. And against both E4 was quite strong. So I could play immediately because I had already calculated it. After this it wasn't holdable in last 1 minute.' It left Carlsen with rook c2 as the only move available. Like Kasparov had said, nobody plays rook c2 with 1 minute on clock. Gukesh had his man and knew it too.
First Post
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- First Post
Carlsen Mocks Gukesh, Is He Threatened By India's Rise? First Sports With Rupha Ramani
Carlsen Mocks Gukesh, Is He Threatened By India's Rise? | First Sports With Rupha Ramani | N18G Carlsen Mocks Gukesh, Is He Threatened By India's Rise? | First Sports With Rupha Ramani | N18G The chess world is witnessing one of its fiercest modern-day rivalries — World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju V World No.1 Magnus Carlsen. While their games have delivered pure brilliance on the board, it's the off-board tension that's setting this rivalry ablaze. From awkward handshakes to critical statements, Carlsen has repeatedly downplayed Gukesh's achievements, questioning his potential and even labelling him a 'weaker player.' But Gukesh, just 19, has responded the best way possible — through performance. After defeating Carlsen in classical format at Norway Chess, Gukesh is proving he belongs at the top by returning with a strong performance at the Grand Chess tour. As India's new chess generation rises—with stars like Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi climbing the ranks—Carlsen's jabs seem more like signs of insecurity than honest critique. Rupha Ramani with more. See More
