Chess | ‘Shocking’ – Magnus Carlsen takes another swipe at World Champion Gukesh | Chess News

Gukesh misplaced to R Praggnanandhaa. (Screengrab)

A day after having an unimaginable Rapid occasion, Classical World Champion Dommaraju Gukesh noticed a dramatic freefall on the primary day of the Blitz occasion at the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Chess Tournament in Zagreb on Saturday.The 19-yr-previous managed simply 1.5 factors from 9 rounds within the Blitz occasion as he misplaced seven of his 9 video games.Gukesh’s lone win got here in opposition to World No. 3 Fabiano Caruana.R Praggnanandhaa, the opposite Indian within the fray, had a combined day the place he scored 4.5 to slide to fourth within the general standings with 13.5 factors. He ended his day on a excessive with a win over fellow countryman Gukesh within the ninth (and remaining) spherical.

With a rating of seven.5/9 on the opening day of the SuperUnited Blitz, Magnus Carlsen has now emerged as the only real chief going into the ultimate day.“Obviously, the score is shocking—and from what I could see, the games weren’t very good either,” Carlsen mentioned of Gukesh’s efficiency.“The good thing for him is that it could not have gone any worse. It’s never easy to have an overnight lead in these tournaments; 4 points over me and 3 over Duda is a lot.“But it would not really feel like that a lot when you do not have the expertise. So far it has been poor, however hopefully for his sake he can relax and play with a distinct angle tomorrow—as a result of now he would not have something to lose, actually.”Gukesh was at his prime in the rapid section, wherein he won as many as six games, including one against Carlsen, but the Indian was way below par in the blitz, which saw him losing six games on the opening day of the fastest version of the game.

Standings after round 9 (blitz)

Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 17.5); 2. Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Pol, 16); 3. D Gukesh (Ind, 15.5); 4. Wesley So (USA, 14.5); 5. R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 13.5); 6-7. Alireza Firouzja (Fra), Fabiano Caruana (USA) 13 each; 8-9. Anish Giri (Ned), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb) 11 each; 10. Ivan Saric (Cro, 10).