India’s 16-year-old Grandmaster Dommaraju Gukesh, enjoying with black items, held five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen to a draw within the ninth spherical of the Tata Metal Masters being held in Wijk aan Zee on Tuesday.
Having overwhelmed Carlsen in an internet fast chess sport final yr, it was the primary time the teenager was going through Carlsen in over-the-board classical chess. And Carlsen, having beforehand misplaced to present chief Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan and Dutch GM Anish Giri within the match, was below stress in his bid to defend his title.
However Gukesh, who was approaching the again of a powerful win over Iranian Parham Maghsoodloo within the earlier spherical, didn’t make any errors to present Carlsen the sting.
“This sport was particular for me as a result of it was my first classical sport in opposition to Carlsen. The outcome wouldn’t matter to me,” he mentioned after the sport.
Gukesh had advised the Indian Specific in December final yr that he was ready for a possibility to speak to Carlsen and decide his mind. And that’s precisely what he did after the match as each the gamers analysed the match for as many as 50 minutes.
“It was actually superb of him to speak to me for thus lengthy regardless of the sport ending in a draw and this being a must-win sport for him. Each of us agreed that it was tough for both of us to get a bonus within the sport,” Gukesh mentioned.
One other Indian teenager Praggnanandhaa additionally had a wonderful sport, drawing in opposition to American GM Fabiano Caruana.
The truth is, it was Caruana who needed to make fairly an effort to equalise in opposition to Praggnanandhaa the 17-year-old who had the initiative and saved urgent till they reached a rook ending the place he lastly agreed to a draw along with his American opponent.
The spotlight of the spherical to this point was Giri beating World No. 2 Ding Liren. Ding blundered a pawn. Giri modified gears, and took the pawn and Ding had no alternative however to resign a few strikes later.