Gukesh loses to Hikaru Nakamura to remain winless at Weissenhaus

Gukesh Dommaraju remains winless at Weissenhaus after losing to Hikaru Nakamura in the 5-8 classification spot match on Wednesday. The Gukesh vs Nakamura battle had to be decided in the rapid tiebreaks after both the classical time control games (first on Tuesday and second one played on Wednesday) ended in draws. In the two-game rapid tiebreak, the first game ended in a draw after 103 moves, but in the second game, Gukesh lost with white pieces after 33 moves.
While the first tiebreak game was played in Position No 5, which was one of the more normal positions with not too much insanity on the starting position, the second game was played in position no 328.
Besides the Gukesh versus Nakamura game, Fabiano Caruana and Javokhir Sindarov also tussled in the tiebreak to figure out who would make it to the final at Weissenhaus. Vincent Keymer had already defeated Magnus Carlsen in the other semi-final to secure a spot in the final.
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Remarkably, Gukesh’s heart rate even when he was completely losing against Nakamura and was making moves with as little as three seconds on the clock was around 90 beats per minute while his American opponent’s heart was bouncing around at 145 BPM. That was as high as Gukesh’s heart rate would go all evening, despite the dire situations he was fighting out of.
DEEP DIVE: Against Fabiano Caruana in the quarters, Gukesh was down to ONE SECOND on his clock at one point while in a completely losing position in the end game. Despite that, his heart rate was at 78 beats per minute. How does Gukesh do it? It’s all in the mind, experts tell The Indian Express
More than once, the 18-year-old from Chennai clawed his way out from losing positions against Nakamura in both the classical game on Wednesday and the first tiebreak game. But eventually, Gukesh’s resance ended as Nakamura, who is the reigning Fischer Random World Champion, forced the classical world champion to resign.
INTERACTIVE: How Gukesh lost to Hikaru Nakamura

Gukesh winess in Weissenhaus
This is the fifth defeat across time controls that Gukesh has experienced at the first event of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour this year. Gukesh had gone winless in the round robin event to decide seedings. Then, in the quarters, he lost both his games in the classical time control to Fabiano Caruana. Against Nakamura, he had managed to frustrate the American in early games. Story continues below this ad
At the start of both tiebreak games, Sindarov and Nakamura spent their 15 minutes discussing game plans with each other. Gukesh and Caruana, however, sat themselves.
Nakamura had been livid at himself just two days ago after allowing Sindarov to escape from a losing position and then defeating him in the tie-breaks. Nakamura had spoken about contemplating retirement as he said his mind was unable to do things his younger self could.
And just when it looked like the day would end with even more frustrations for the World No.2, he managed to find a win over Gukesh.

Amit Kamath is Assant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. … Read More