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Journalism of Courage
Magnus Carlsen endured a defeat to young Vincent Keymer to leave his FIDE World Cup campaign tethering on the brink. the world no 1 and five-time world champion has famously never won the FIDE World Cup. The 18-year-old German had never beaten Carlsen in a classical game before today. Carlsen now will need to win the reverse game on Thursday, which will then force the encounter into a tiebreak.
Carlsen will be hoping to avoid the fate of other favoured players like Anish Giri (who was knocked out by Nijat Abasov) and Teimour Radjabov (who lost to Jaime Santos).
Meanwhile, India’s quartet of teenage grandmasters did not manage a win on Wednesday, but they had admirable results. Particularly impressive were R Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin. While Praggnanandhaa (playing with black pieces) managed to hold the recently-married Hikaru Nakamura to a draw, Nihal held two-time world championship contender Ian Nepomniachtchi to a comfortable draw with black pieces.
India’s D Gukesh, who has risen to the position of the country’s top-rated chess player in the live ratings, held Andrey Esipenko to a draw. Arjun Erigaisi also ended up with a draw against Javokhir Sindarov despite having an advantageous position at one stage.
The other Indian GM in the fray, Vidit Gujrathi, managed to overpower French GM Etienne Bacrot with white pieces.
In the women’s section, Harika Dronavalli drew against Eline Roebers while Koneru Humpy lost to Bella Khotenashvili with white pieces.
