Chess Olympiad R-5 Open Section: Gukesh keeps winning, overtakes Vidit to be World No 27 in live ratings

All three Indian sides in the Open Section won their matchups in Round 5 on a day D. Gukesh became the third highest-rated Indian player on the live rating list.

Gukesh’s and B. Adhiban’s wins helped India 2 to secure victory over Spain in Round five of Chess Olympia. | Photo Credit: JOTHI RAMALINGAM B

In 2000, just over six years before D. Gukesh was born, Alexie Shirov tried in vain to stop Viswanathan Anand from winning his first of the five world titles. On Tuesday, it was Gukesh’s turn to outplay the 50-year-old Latvian-Spaniard to not only to keep India 2 on the victory path but also to become India’s third highest rated player on the live rating list.

In winning his fifth game on the trot on the top board of the Chess Olympiad, Gukesh punished Shirov for an error of judgement on the 28th move. In fact, the country’s youngest Grandmaster produced a rare king-march across the centre of the board that left Shirov helpless.

In fact, with rook pairs still on the board, Gukesh moved his king six times over the last 11 moves to force his veteran rival to give up in 44 moves.

The victory saw Gukesh overtook Vidit Gujrathi for a career-high 27th spot in world rankings with a live rating of 2714, after gaining 15 points in the last five days. Vidit, having lost three points from four games, now has a live rating of 2711 for the 28th place.

B. Adhiban victory came before R. Praggnanandhaa suffered a rare loss but by that time, India 2 was firmly among the leaders.

For India 1, it was 18-year-old Arjun Erigaisi who did the trick after all boards ended as draws against Romania. For India 3, S. P. Sethuraman and Abhimanyu Puranik won with white pieces against their Chilean rivals but M. Karthikeyan lost.

S. P. Sethuraman and Abhimanyu Puranik won with white pieces for India 3 against Chile to offset Murali Karthikeyan loss on the third board

The results (with match-points):

Open (fifth round): India (9) bt Romania (7) 2.5-1.5 (P. Harikrishna drew with Bogdan-Daniel Deac; Vidit Gujrathi drew with Constantin Lupulescu; Arjun Erigaisi bt Mircea-Emilian Parligras; S. L. Narayanan drew with Vlad-Cristian Jianu).

Chile (6) lost to India 3 (8) 1.5-2.5 (Cristobal Henriquez Villagra drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly; Ivan Morovic Fernandez lost to S. P. Sethuraman; Pablo Salinas Herrera bt M. Karthikeyan; Hugo Lopez Silva lost to Abhimanyu Puranik)

Spain (8) lost to India 2 (10) 1.5-2.5 (Alexei Shirov lost to D. Gukesh; David Anton drew with Nihal Sarin; Jaime Santos Latasa bt R. Praggnanandhaa; Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli lost to B. Adhiban)

England (8) lost to Armenia (10) 1.5-2.5; Israel (8) lost to USA (9) 1.5-2.5; France (8) drew with Poland (8) 2-2; Azerbaijan (7) lost to Cuba (9) 1.5-2.5; Iran (9) bt Turkey (7) 3-1; Uzbekistan (9) bt Slovakia (7) 4-0; Netherlands (8) bt Canada (7) 3.5-0.5; Slovenia (6) lost to Germany (8) 1-3.