Erigaisi loses, Gukesh beats Erdogmus

Wijk Aan Zee: India’s top-rated chess player Arjun Erigaisi could not match the skills of Vincent Keymer of Germany in key moments and crashed to another defeat in the 10th round of Tata Steel Masters here.

World champion D Gukesh fought his way back into contention, delivering an endgame masterclass against young prodigy Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus. Playing with the black pieces, Gukesh secured another clinical victory to take his tally to a respectable five points out of a possible 10.

However, the Indian ace will need an exceptional performance in the final three rounds if he is to truly stamp his authority as world champion.

Erigaisi had been on the cusp just a few days ago but seemed to lose the thread midway, and now finds himself firmly in the lower half of the points table. With just four points from 10 games, the highest-ranked Indian has plenty of ground to make up merely to stay afloat. A positional blunder in the closed Ruy Lopez is often unforgivable, and that was precisely Erigaisi’s undoing. Vincent Keymer was quick to pounce, and from that point on there was no looking back for the German . agencies