Zagreb, July 3:
World champion D Gukesh made good use of his white pieces to beat Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri in the final game of the day to rise to joint second spot after the second day of the Zagreb leg of the Grand Chess Tour here. Iranian Grandmaster Firoujza Alireza is at the top by extending his lead by a huge three points.
With 10 points in his kitty out of a possible 12, Alireza is far ahead of his rivals — Vincent Keymer of Germany, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, Deac Bogdan-Daniel of Romania and Gukesh, who all have identical seven points.
Another half point behind are India’s R Praggnanandhaa, Giri and Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan while Croatioan Ivan Saric and Dutchman Jorden van Foreest are at the bottom of the table with just two points apiece. Gukesh made most of his opportunities against Giri in a Ruy Lopez exchange variation.
For once, the Dutch Grandmaster of Nepalese origin was seen lost from his prep book as Gukesh launched an attack against his king and never looked back. Winning an exchange, the youngest ever world champion did nothing wrong in wrapping up a fine victory.
The day could have been better for Praggnanandhaa but Alireza simply had the Caissa on his side. After reaching a probable draw out of a game that had fluctuating fortunes, Praggnanandhaa was the last one to make a blunder and lost from what was a theoretically drawn endgame.
Earlier in the day, Gukesh started off with an uncharacteristic loss against Bogdan-Daniel but followed it up with a win over Foreest. Much like the first day when he beat Keymer in the opener, Praggnanandhaa won the first game of the day against Foreest but ended up losing the next two starting with Abdusattorov.
With three rounds still remaining in rapid, Alireza seems all set to win the section but there are still 18 games to come in the blitz that will decide the final outcome on the last two days.