44th Chess Olympiad: Gukesh stuns former World Championship challenger Shirov as India B clinch fifth win in row

Aug. 2: Young Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh caused a biggest upset of the Round 5 at the 44th Chess Olympiad by defeating former World Championship Challenger Alexei Shirov as India B shocked Spain by 2.5-1.5 score in Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu on Tuesday.

Exhibiting a brilliant gameplay, Gukesh not only extended his unbeaten run at the prestigious event but also helped India B register an impressive victory against fourth-seeded Spain—team’s fifth successive win in the open section.

It was Gukesh’s fifth victory on the trot in this event. Incidentally, after this victory, he overtakes Vidit Gujrathi in live ratings to be the third highest rated player in India after Viswanathan Anand and Pentala Harikrishna.

“I got a fine position after an error from him and slowly outplayed him. It’s a pleasure to play a player of Shirov’s calibre and to beat him is special,” Gukesh said after the match.

“My strategy was to provoke him and being an aggressive player, he could not resist aggressive moves, ones which I anticipated. There were a lot of checkmating patterns later on in the game,” Gukesh added.

Adhiban B. was also in fine fettle, downing GM Eduardo Iturrizaga in a strategic master piece while Nihal Sarin held Anton Guijar to a draw.

India A and India C also notched up identical wins against Romania and Croatia respectively in other open section matches.

Meanwhile in the women’s section, India A also registered their fifth consecutive victory with Tania Sachdev once again bringing the winning point for her team. They beat France by 2.5-1.5 margin after Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli Harika and R Vaishali had drawn their encounters.

Indian women’s B team, on the other hand, lost to fancied Georgia with a 0-3 score while Team C held Brazil to a 2-2 draw.

Harika and Sophie Millet signed a truce after 40 moves in a dead equal position.