Sam Shankland after beating Gukesh: ‘To demolish the world champion is a good way to turn (the tournament) around’

After six round of rapid, Gukesh has two wins, two defeats and two draws at the tournament in St Louis which is part of the Grand Chess Tour.

(LEFT) American grandmaster Sam Shankland; (RIGHT) World champion Gukesh Dommaraju at the St Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament. (PHOTOS: Crystal Fuller/Grand Chess Tour)

World champion Gukesh Dommaraju’s woes in the faster time control events continued as he lost his fourth round clash at the St Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament to bottom-of-the-table Sam Shankland, before holding on to two draws against French grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Uzbek rival Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

After six round of rapid, the reigning world champion has two wins, two defeats and two draws at the tournament in St Louis which is part of the Grand Chess Tour. Gukesh had started the tournament in the USA with a loss to the veteran Levon Aronian, who said he had won by playing “grandpa style” of slow chess.

The Indian teenager, who became the youngest world champion in chess history last year after defeating Ding Liren, had topped the tournament standings after the rapid portion at the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Croatia tournament in Zagreb in June-July, raising hopes that he was starting to ace the faster time controls as well.

INTERACTIVE: How Gukesh lost to Sam Shankland

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The defeat to Shankland came in 62 moves, after Gukesh was left with just a rook and pawn on the board and the American GM up a knight. Shankland had started the first day of the event with a 0-3 record, losing all three of his games on day 1. Then he bounced back after handing Gukesh a defeat.

After giving away a slight edge to his opponent early on in the game, Gukesh, in fact, was in a worse position on the board from the 17th move itself when he pushed his queen to a5 (17.Qa5). Gukesh was a knight down from the 19th move itself.

“To start 0-3 (in the tournament) is really tough. But then to come in and demolish the world champion is a good way to turn it around,” Shankland said after the win over Gukesh. “It’s a good relief after yesterday when I looked like I am going to lose every single game. I’m still not happy with my score at all, but hopefully the next rounds will be better. I’m old enough to not get super emotional after getting punched in the face, I guess.”