Chess: Erdogmus, 14 , wins ‘Immortal’ sport on Silk Street as Grand Swiss nears climax – The Guardian

The ‘Turkish Immortal’ allowed two white queens on the board, then sacrificed the black queen for a pawn, adopted by checkmate by a beforehand unmoved black pawn
There have been two new frontrunners on Thursday on the $625,000 Grand Swiss in Samarkand on the traditional Silk Street, after Iran’s Parham Maghsoodloo, who had led for the primary six rounds, was crushed. The highest two finishers after 11 rounds will qualify for the 2026 Candidates and a possible title shot on the shaky crown of the world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju.
Leaders after spherical seven had been Nihal Sarin (India) and Matthias Blübaum (Germany) 5.5, Maghsoodloo (Iran), Abhimanyu Mishra and Hans Niemann (US), Anish Giri (Netherlands), Alireza Firouzja (France), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) and Vidit Gujrathi (India) 5.
Sarin, 21, and Blübaum, 28, had been seeded solely Nos 20 and 32 at first. They are going to be paired collectively in Friday’s eighth spherical, however can anticipate a tough journey within the closing three rounds because the favourites make their bids for the Candidates.
This event can be remembered for 2 historic teenage achievements. Mishra, who’s already a world document holder because the youngest ever grandmaster, at 12 years 4 months, set one other landmark when, aged 16 years seven months, he defeated Gukesh in spherical 5 to change into the youngest participant ever to win towards a reigning world champion, breaking the document set 33 years earlier by Gata Kamsky of the US, then 17 years 10 months, against Garry Kasparov at Dortmund 1992.
Mishra was modest concerning the sport: “Though I received, it doesn’t really feel pleasing, as a result of I had a profitable place however simply threw it away. Later he made some errors and I acquired it again, however general it wasn’t a really clear sport.”
The second historic sport was in spherical 4, when Turkey’s Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus overwhelmed India’s Mittal Aditya by a barrage of brilliancies. The “Turkish Immortal” allowed two white queens on the board, then sacrificed the black queen for a pawn, adopted by checkmate by a beforehand unmoved black pawn. It was much more sensible than Bobby Fischer’s 1956 “Game of the Century” towards Donald Byrne.
Aditya v Erdogmus is given right here twice: first with the bare moves, then with the Chessbase India video of the sport because it really occurred, with the strikes sped up as in the event that they had been enjoying blitz. Magnus Carlsen, commenting on Take Take Take, paid Erdogmus an enormous praise: “Erdogmus is actually, actually good, at virtually unprecedented ranges at that age.”
The younger Turk impressed once more with a troublesome defence towards Abdusattorov, who tried for eight hours and 190 strikes to win with queen and rook pawn towards queen, however in Thursday’s spherical seven Erdogmus was properly crushed by Hans Niemann, making a late transfer in the direction of the leaders.
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In the meantime, Gukesh misplaced once more, this time towards the little-known Greek GM Nikolas Theodorou. Attempting to regain floor within the event, Gukesh overpressed after which had a declare for a draw by threefold repetition of place rejected by the arbiter, who added two minutes to Theodorou’s clock as a penalty.
It acquired worse for Gukesh in spherical seven when, after reaching a received place towards Turkey’s different younger star Ediz Gurel, 16, he blundered into defeat. Gukesh now has a minus rating after three losses in a row, whereas Gurel turns into the all-time second youngest participant after Mishra to beat a reigning world champion.
General within the Grand Swiss, the small group of elite GMs who monopolise invites to invaluable all-play-all tournaments have failed to this point to show any clear superiority to decrease ranked opponents. There may very well be a message right here for the St Louis-backed Grand Chess Tour and the Freestyle Grand Slam.
Not like the Open, the $230,000 Girls’s Grand Swiss has been dominated by two of the highest seeds: Vaishali Rameshbabu, who received it in 2023, and Kateryna Lagno, a constant performer in main occasions. Vaishali took a transparent lead in spherical seven when she overwhelmed her Chinese opponent with a basic assault by queen, knight and pawns on a castled king.
Girls’s Grand Prix leaders after seven of the 11 rounds had been Vaishali (India) 6, Lagno (Russia) 5.5, Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kazakhstan), Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine), and Yuxin Track (China) 5.
3989 1 Qd5+! Nxd5 2 Bg4+! Ke5 3 Rf5+! Kd4 (if Ke6 4 exd5 mate) 4 Rxd5+ Kc4 5 Be2+ Kb4 6 a3 mate.

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