Stavanger: Reigning world champion D Gukesh emerged the winner in a thrilling Armageddon tie-break against American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana but Arjun Erigaisi succumbed to Magnus Carlsen’s intuitive skills on a mixed day for the Indians in the ‘Open’ category of Norway Chess here.
World No. 3 Caruana enjoyed a pawn advantage for most part of the Round 4 game against his Indian opponent, who turned 19 on Thursday, but the American could not convert it into a significant advantage in over four hours of engrossing chess thanks to Gukesh’s superb defensive skills.
The Armageddon tiebreak was applied to break the stalemate. Both Gukesh and Erigaisi are now tied fourth in the six-payer field with 4.5 points apiece, while Carlsen is the sole leader with 8 points, followed by Caruana on 7 and American GM Hikaru Nakamura on 5.5.
Gukesh later said that he doesn’t really enjoy playing on his birthday but would gladly take this crucial morale-boosting win. “Most of my birthdays I end up losing the game, so glad it did not repeat in the classical. When I was playing, I felt fine, but when I was losing, I was like, ‘ok, not again’,” said Gukesh. World No. 1 Carlsen showed his tactical superiority in the endgame against No. 2 Erigaisi, who played with black pieces, to earn three full points.
In the women’s section, R Vaishali earned a crucial half -point by overcoming Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk.