Ruthless Magnus beats Gukesh to take lead in Chess World Cup quarters | Chess News

When five-time chess world champion Magnus Carlsen is in the mood, it can be quite difficult, punishing almost, to play against him.India’s teen sensation and World No. 7 in live ratings D Gukesh found that out the hard way in their opening game of the FIDE World Cup quarterfinal in Baku on Tuesday.The Norwegian, despite playing with black, punished Gukesh for just a slight oversight and found his way through an arduous endgame to win the first game in 49 moves. The loss leaves 17-year-old Gukesh in a must-win situation on Wednesday as a draw will be enough for Carlsen to go through to the semifinals.
In an all-Indian quarterfinal between two teens, Arjun Erigaisi, playing with black, punished R Praggnanandhaa for a few careless moves, winning the opening game.
The other Indian in the fray, Vidit Gujarathi held a slight advantage but agreed to draw against home favourite Nijat Abasov after 109 moves and nearly six hours of chess.
This is the first time that India has had as many as four players in the quarterfinals of a FIDE World Cup. Mind you, no Indian has won a medal at the tournament since Viswanathan Anand did so in the first two editions of the tournament in 2000 and 2002.

Winning a medal at the World Cup means the player will qualify for the eight-player 2024 Candidates Tournament – the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship.
The big match of the day was undoubtedly the Gukesh-Carlsen clash.
The Indian has been having a phenomenal run in recent months, overtaking his mentor and India’s only world chess champion Anand in live ratings, while Carlsen has a point to prove after choosing to not defend his World Championship title.
And while he seems to have taken a liking to Gukesh and his teen compatriots Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa, having played together in the same team at the inaugural Global Chess League in June this year, he wasn’t going to take it easy. He even admitted he was in a fighting mood.
“I felt really good ahead of the game. I was in a fighting mood for sure. I was really happy with his choice of opening (as it would be a good fight),” Carlsen told FIDE after the game.
While Gukesh played solidly in the opening and mid-game, Carlsen indicated that he wasn’t really troubled, saying he thought the match was going to end in a draw.

“I was not relying on theory, just intuition. He (Gukesh) probably should’ve not gone into a rook ending as before that, it looked like a draw to me. (When it’s a rook ending,) It gets more and more difficult and I just played logical moves,” he said.
Carlsen and Gukesh were evenly matched until the Indian teenager erred on the 34th move, moving his rook to the queen’s side.
Carlsen, when asked about how he got this endgame mastery, said, “For me, it’s just talent and practice (smiles). Like many young players at the start, I was not good at endgames. Then with a lot of practice, I got better at practical endgames. Eventually, I got to be better at theoretical endgames.”
Immediately after the game, Gukesh and Carlsen were seen discussing the moves. The mutual respect they have for each other was clearly on display when Gukesh, despite being in trouble during the game, politely waited for Carlsen to return to the board before leaving himself.
Friends & opponents
There was no shortage of mutual respect between Arjun and Praggnanandhaa either but the foundation of the former’s win was laid when he sacrificed a knight for two kingside pawns. The balance ultimately shifted in Arjun’s favour when Praggnanandhaa, in his 37th move, ignored the danger posed the black queen and played his bishop. Sensing a chance, Arjun calculated for three minutes and belted out the next seven moves in the space of just 78 seconds.
Praggnanandhaa tried to delay the inevitable taking 21 minutes for the next move and eventually gave up in 53 moves after Arjun’s queen returned to the board.Anand opined that pressure took a toll on Praggnanandhaa and he now faces an uphill task.
“When Pragg made a few careless decisions around move 30, Arjun kept posing him problems. Pragg’s task was no longer simple and he crumbled under pressure,” Anand tweeted. “A crucial win for Arjun and Pragg also needs a win with Black tomorrow to remain in the event.”
Best buddies off the board, Arjun said they spent most of the day together but didn’t talk about their match.

“We were talking about everything else but about our match. We prepared for that individually. We just wanted to relax, but we did talk about other matches at the tournament,” he said.
In the remaining quarterfinal of the day, which was an all-American encounter, Leinier Dominguez Perez tossed away a massive advantage and let World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana escape with a 71-move draw.