Chess | New low for World champion! D Gukesh virtually out of Grand Swiss title race after second straight defeat

NEW DELHI: “Do you know what the Chigorin Club is?” Nikolas Theodorou, D Gukesh’s Round 6 opponent at the FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, was asked on Tuesday.

The Greek GM guessed: “People who have beaten a world champion?” Told he had become the third to do so against Gukesh in the classical time control, Theodorou smiled: “Oh, okay, I didn’t know, but it feels good.”

For the 19-year-old world champion, though, nothing about the day felt good, as can be gauged from his post-game routine.

Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! After shaking hands, Gukesh stormed out of the playing hall, exclaiming something a couple of times in frustration, portraying a sorry state for a teenage world champion weighed down by two defeats in two days.

Coming off a painful loss to 16-year-old GM Abhimanyu Mishra on Monday, Gukesh played with White pieces against Theodorou.

A King’s Pawn opening met Petrov’s Defence, drifting into Marshall and Staunton lines, before Gukesh surprised with an unusual 9.c5.

“He surprised me right out of the opening with this weird C5 move, which I think is extremely rare. I had never seen it before in that position, but anyway I tried to react in a principled way,” said Theodorou afterwards.

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