Missed Chance For Gukesh Divya Defeats Humpy In Armageddon

Bengaluru: Gukesh missed an opportunity against leader Wesley So in their Round 7 classical encounter of Norway Chess in Oslo, letting the American GM off the hook after being close to winning. After their drawn classical game, the world champion took So down... Bengaluru: Gukesh missed an opportunity against leader Wesley So in their Round 7 classical encounter of Norway Chess in Oslo, letting the American GM off the hook after being close to winning. After their drawn classical game, the world champion took So down in the Armageddon. The 20-year-old though remains at the bottom of the standings at eight points, with fellow Indian R Praggnanandhaa above him at nine points. Praggnanandhaa handed Alireza Firouzja his second classical defeat in a row while world No.1 Magnus Carlsen got the better of Vincent Keymer in the Armageddon. So, playing with Black pieces, gave up his e-pawn out of the opening and though he tried surprise moves like 12. Nb4, Gukesh was unfazed. Black was soon left with a broken pawn structure and an isolated pawn. The game turned progressively complicated and Gukesh employed his King as an active piece. Gukesh slipped up with him identifying 30. Nd5?! as a key mistake and So managed to wriggle out of trouble by finding a series of only moves. Defending champion Carlsen, who has won the tournament seven times, is on nine points, 3.5 points behind leader So. “I’m trying to do something to get the games going for sure, but I’m probably going to need a lot of classical wins. It didn’t go my way today, but I’ll keep trying. At least we got a nice, fighting game,” he said. Playing Black, Carlsen spent 15 minutes on the first couple of moves and went on to play the King’s Indian Defense. He chose the somewhat dubious 6…Re8 and 7…Bd7 and tried to recall who he had discussed the plan with, hoping it wasn’t Keymer. English GM and commentator David Howell revealed it was he who had the conversation with Carlsen in a hot tub in Stockholm. In the women’s section, Kazakh GM Bibisara Assaubayeva, who is accompanied in Oslo by World Championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov, kept up her lead, taking down Zhu Jiner in their classical game. She had defeated the Chinese GM twice in the recent Women’s Candidates tournament. Divya Deshmukh, who’s been having quite the run on her Norway Chess debut, had Koneru Humpy on the ropes after playing the aggressive Benko Gambit. She spoke of having “hallucinated” and allowing the position to turn equal. She went on to win the Armageddon. After seven rounds, So and Bibisara lead the open and women’s standings by 2.5 points. Bengaluru: Gukesh missed an opportunity against leader Wesley So in their Round 7 classical encounter of Norway Chess in Oslo, letting the American GM off the hook after being...