16-year-old Dommaraju Gukesh played brilliantly to defeat former World Championship Challenger Alexei Shirov even as his India Team B shocked fourth seed Spain with a 2.5-1.5 score at the ongoing 44th Chess Olympiad being played at Mamallapuram, Chennai. Replay the match here
This was Gukesh’s fifth victory on the trot and also a fifth victory for his India B Team. Gukesh, incidentally after this victory overtakes Vidit Gujrathi in Live ratings to be the third highest rated player in India after Anand and Harikrishna. He holds the second position on the live rating junior lists being behind Alireza Firouzja. After the game, Gukesh commented: “I got a fine position after an error from him and slowly outplayed him. It’s a pleasure to play Shirov and to beat him, is special”. Round 5 results (open section) / Round 6 team pairings
The game incidentally was an old Sicilian where Shirov tried an unconventional 9th move. Gukesh was quick on the uptake and started pressing for victory after blunting out Shirov’s pieces. His King personally escorted one of his pawns to the queening square with the help of his two rooks, prompting Shirov’s resignation on the 44th turn in a position which was beyond repair. The 16-year-old summed up “My strategy was to provoke him and being an aggressive player, he could not resist aggressive moves, ones which I anticipated. There were lot of checkmating patterns arising in the game“. Replay all Gukesh’s games from the 2022 Chess Olympiad below
Round 1 (UAE – India2): IM Omran Al Hosani – GM Gukesh D 0-1
Round 2 (India2 – Estonia): GM Gukesh D – IM Kalle Kiik 1-0
Round 3 (Switzerland – India2): GM Nico Georgiadis – GM Gukesh D 0-1
Round 4 (India2 – Italy): GM Gukesh D – GM Daniele Vocaturo 1-0
Round 5 (Spain – India2): GM Alexei Shirov – GM Gukesh D 0-1
