Gukesh is already fearless and combative against the very top players. The teen is up to world No 13 in the live ratings, has risen to India’s No2 behind the legendary Vishy Anand, and is coached by Anand’s former trainer. ![]() He’s thinking: ‘I’ve got to show my stuff right now, particularly with all the young players coming up.’ Time is ticking, he’s 30 now.” The elephant in the room is the general perception among top players that China’s Ding Liren is a subpar world champion who will be vulnerable to his next challenger.ĭommaraju Gukesh, who only turned 17 at the start of the tournament, also scored a major success by finishing third, and is starting to look the most likely of his generation to make it all the way to the very top. Photograph: Miguel Pereira/Getty ImagesĬaruana could still take comfort from his second place: “You work for a long period of time and the results don’t really show, but at some point everything just comes together and you start to play better.” The commentator Maurice Ashley described his colleague’s focus: “I know for a fact that for Fabi it’s world champion or bust, especially now that Magnus has abdicated the throne. Hikaru Nakamura impressed with his pragmatic style. He has impressed with his pragmatic, tactically barbed playing style and his lightning fast reflexes when games go down to the wire. In Tuesday’s seventh round after he and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov completed both their classical and Armageddon games in the time it took Carlsen and Firouzja to play their first few moves, he went on to take yet another first prize in ’s Titled Tuesday, which he has already won more than 50 times. Nakamura had deputies for his stream while he played the tournament, but in several games he used the confessional, where players can talk to the outside world while awaiting their opponent’s next turn, to give a running commentary on his own game, and in one instance (“Welcome back, everyone!”) on the other games as well. Instead, he had to play an endgame two pawns down which Nakamura systematically converted. Caruana realised too late that 19 Ng5! Qxa3 20 Qh5! would be winning for White. ![]() It all turned on Caruana’s 17th move f7-f5, played in the mistaken belief that Nakamura could not reply 18 Nxc5 because of 18.Qa5 winning a piece.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |