A day after being an incredible rapid event, classical world champion Domraju Gukesh on Saturday saw a dramatic freefall on the first day of the Blitz event in the supernated rapid and Blitz Chess Tournament at Zagreb.The 19 -year -old scored just 1.5 points from nine rounds at the Blitz event as he lost seven of his nine matches.Gukesh’s alone victory came against World No. 3 Fabiano Caruana.R Praggananandha, in another Indian ground, was a mixed day, where he scored 4.5 runs to slip fourth in the overall standing with 13.5 points. He finished his day at a high with a win over fellow Conscience Gukesh in the ninth (and final) round.
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With a score of 7.5/9 on the early day of the supernated blitz, Magnus Carlsen has now emerged as the only leader to visit the last day.“Obviously, the score is shocking – and the game was not very good with what I could see,” Carlson said about Gukesh’s performance.“The good thing for him is that it could not have been worse. It is not easy to make an overnight lead in these tournaments; I have 4 points on me and 3 on Duda.“But it does not feel that when you do not have experience. It is poor till now, but hopefully he can calm down and play with a different attitude tomorrow – because now he has nothing to lose, in fact.”Gukesh was on his prime in the Rapid section, winning six matches, which included a single one against Carlsen, but was equal to the Indian Blitz, which saw him losing six games in the early day of the fastest version of the game.
Standing after Round 9 (Blitz)
Magnus Carlson (neither, 17.5); 2. Jan-krzysztof duda (pole, 16); 3. D Gukesh (IND, 15.5); 4. Wesley So (USA, 14.5); 5. R Pragnanandha (Industries, 13.5); 6-7. Alireza Firouzja (Fra), Fabiano Caruana (USA) 13 each; 8-9. Anish Giri (Ned), Nodirbek Abdusatorov (UZB) 11 each; 10. Ivan Sarik (Crow, 10).
