Norway Chess: Gukesh’s roller-coaster ride continues as Erigaisi upsets Nakamura

Stavanger: Reigning world champion D Gukesh's roller-coaster ride continued with the Indian suffering a defeat in an Armageddon tie-break as he slipped to tied-fifth place, while Arjun Erigaisi upset American world No.2 Hikaru Nakamura to maintain his fourth position in Norway Chess.

Defending champion Magnus Carlsen continued to shine on Saturday, taking his points tally to 9.5 following his Armageddon tie-break victory against another American GM Fabiano Caruana with black pieces.

On a day when the tournament delivered gripping action across all boards, all three games in the 'Open' category ended in draws, with the Armageddon tie-break being applied to break the deadlock.

In a match, where fortunes swung wildly, Chinese GM Wei Yi was winning in the middlegame, while Gukesh, playing with black pieces, had the advantage in the endgame. But the Classical game finally ended in a stalemate after a lot of uncertainty.

Wei, who has proved a difficult customer in Armageddon having defeated Carlsen and Nakamura in earlier games here, registered his third tie-break win as Gukesh was left searching for answers to overturn his fortunes.

The Chinese conceded he had missed a great opportunity to outmanoeuvre Gukesh in the Classical game, which would have fetched him three full points, instead of 1.5.

"I hope I can win in a Classical game. But I missed a great chance today, I think," said Wei.

Nakamura observed that Gukesh's tendency to go after Wei from the get-go despite having black pieces would explain why the Indian ran into trouble in the Classical game. In the end, it was the world champion who came close to winning the game, but a draw was fair to both the exponents.

Erigaisi came up with a rare idea in the Slav Defense to surprise Nakamura but the American was quite familiar with the move. Despite the American having a great chance of winning, he fumbled as the games ended in a draw.

The Armageddon tie-break too ended in agony for Nakamura, who was winning until he nonchalantly played a move even though he had three minutes on the clock to surrender the initiative.

With his Armageddon win against Caruana, Carlsen is leading the standings with 9.5 points. Caruana, is a close second with 8 points, while Nakamura is on 6.5.

In the women's section, two-time world rapid champion, Koneru Humpy took the lead with 8.5 points following a tie-break win against China’s Lei Tingjie, while R. Vaishali scored a decisive win against Iranian-Spanish player Sara Khadem to log three points and move to fourth spot with 6.5 points.

Vaishali, who climbed out of last place after securing three full points, said: "This win feels good. The first few games did not go my way. I hope I’ll have a good tournament from here on.”

Results

Open: Fabiano Caruana (USA - 8) lost to Magnus Carlsen (Nor – 9.5) in Armageddon; Wei Yi (Chn 5.5) beat D Gukesh (Ind – 5.5) in Armageddon; Arjun Erigaisi (Ind – 6) bt Hikaru Nakamura (USA – 6.5) in Armageddon.

Women: Sara Khadem (Esp – 5) lost to R Vaishali (Ind – 6.5), Koneru Humpy (Ind – 8.5) bt Lei Tingjie (Chn – 5) in Armageddon; Anna Muzychuk (Ukr 8) lost to Ju Wenjun (Chn – 7) in Armageddon.