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New Delhi: In the eighth round of the FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand, World Champion D Gukesh Dommaraju was forced to sweat as he was held to a six-hour, 103-move draw by compatriot Divya Deshmukh. The match ended in a rook-and-knight vs rook endgame, demonstrating the 18-year-old champion's tenacity and the bravery of Divya, who has been taking the open section by storm.
The encounter carried a big storyline even before the first move. Divya, who is ranked 289 points lower than Gukesh, is having the best tournament so far, having eliminated two male grandmasters. The greatest challenge of her campaign was taking on the current world champion and she met it with incredible perseverance, holding her nerves in the crucial moments. Gukesh was keen to steady his form after losing three straight rounds, including defeats to 16-year-olds Abhimanyu Mishra and Ediz Gurel. The match came at a difficult time for him.
Gukesh decided to play with white and used the Rossolimo Attack but even though he had some advantage, he was unable to overcome Divya's defences. She would have been the first woman to defeat a current world champion in classical chess if she had converted the position, but in the end, the younger challenger held her ground and nearly made history.
Nihal Sarin kept his stranglehold at the top of the standings. The 20-year-old grandmaster maintained his position among the top leaders with six points after splitting points with Matthias Bluebaum of Germany in just 21 moves game. Early on, neither player showed much desire to push in what was a strategic truce rather than repeating movements.
Arjun Erigaisi, who is still in the running, also accepted a draw with Armenia's Shant Sargsyan. Although there was less activity at the top of the round overall than in previous days, the rankings are still in a precarious position going into the tournament's last stages.
Some of the other Indian contenders had a more difficult day as the defending champion, Vidit Gujrathi lost to Vincent Keymer of Germany. R Vaishali, the only leader in the women's division going into the round, also struggled. After making an endgame mistake that left a piece dangling, she lost to Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan. Assaubayeva didn't waste any time as she took advantage of the situation and joined Vaishali on six points.
Kateryna Lagno of Russia was the clear favourite in the women's division as she moved to 6.5 points, half a point ahead of Assaubayeva, Vaishali and Yuxin Song of China, after defeating Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine with the white pieces. The competition for qualifying positions is still as intense as ever with a few rounds left.
The tie with Divya ended Gukesh's losing streak but it may not have put him back in the running. It served as yet another reinforcement to Divya that she is one of the greatest people in the world.
