CHENNAI: World champion Gukesh Dommaraju lost a highly tense and complicated endgame match to Alireza Firouzja in Round 2 of the Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters here on Friday. This nail-biting victory helped the French Grandmaster bag two points in as many games at the top of the leaderboard, extending Gukesh's recent slump in classical chess.
Firouzja, who had defeated GM M Pranesh with black pieces on the opening day, got the better of the world champion after 69 moves.
Following this loss, Gukesh will look to rebound in the remaining rounds of the double-round-robin event against the likes of Arjun Erigaisi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Hans Niemann, all strong players on a given day.
M Pranesh, who had lost his opening round with white, did not take any chances with black pieces against GM Dmitry Andreikin and settled for a draw by repeating in just 18 moves. "It was not much, just that I kind of outran him in the opening. Then maybe I got a slight boost. I just outran him in move 4. And he didn't know what to do, so he just went for something," he said after his win. Pranesh who trains with noted coach RB Ramesh was glad to be playing this tournament and was looking to polish his skill sets.
"It will be a very difficult one (to win against a strong field), but I hope I can make some wins also. It's just really strong. In general, I want to work on openings just to match this level, but I will try to improve all my levels. Because playing them is a great opportunity," he said.
"The overall experience, is just great. And yesterday, they just played too well and I could not do anything," he added.
He played an instrumental role in helping R Vaishali win the historic FIDE Women's Candidates tournament in Cyprus, a few months ago. While Vaishali competed on the board to secure the right to challenge Ju Wenjun for the World Championship, Pranesh served as her second, sparring partner, and primary source of support. "You learn a lot when you go to a tournament like this. In general, I am just a fun guy and I just enjoy chess. So that's how I have been. I was really happy. I also understood how they play and I have improved a bit after going there. I also helped her a bit," he added.
Meanwhile, GM Arjun Erigaisi also played it safe against GM with black pieces and the Uzbek signed the peace treaty after 43 moves.
GM Nihal Sarin also held Hans Niemann to a draw after a marathon 132 move game in which he thwarted all the moves of his US opponent to gain the upper hand.
Results:Rd 2: GM Hans Niemann (1) drew with GM Nihal Sarin (1); GM Alireza Firouzja (2) bt GM D Gukesh (0.5); GM Dmitry Andreikin (1) drew with GM M Pranesh 0.5
