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IMAGE: Kerala teenager Krishna Goutham shares the lead with World No 1 Magnus Carlsen, top Indian exponent Arjun Erigaisi, and Vladislav Artemiev. Photograph: Anna Shtourman/FIDE
Teenage International Master Krishna Goutham emerged an unlikely joint leader with three consecutive wins, while star Indian players D Gukesh and R\ Praggnanandhaa got their campaign off to a slow but steady start in the FIDE World Rapid Championships, in Doha, on Friday.
The 15-year-old from Kerala, who has achieved significant success including finishing runners-up at the National Championship, showcased his talent by earning full points in the three opening rounds.
He shares the lead with the likes of World No 1 Magnus Carlsen, top Indian exponent Arjun Erigaisi, and Vladislav Artemiev, a leading Russian GM with a 2700-plus rating.
With two more rounds to go on the opening day, World champion in classical chess Gukesh (2.5 points) too came up with a couple of good wins but a draw pushed him down the order, while Praggnanandhaa was on two points after a win in the opening round followed by back-to-back draws.
However, the day belonged to Goutham, who overcame Serbian GM Indjic Aleksandar with black pieces, before getting the better of one of the top Indian GM Aravindh Chithambaram with white and then outmanoeuvreing Azerbaijan’s Radjabov Teimour.
Gukesh, who said during a media interaction on Thursday that he hasn’t come into the event with a lot of expectations, started sedately with a hard-fought draw against Canadian GM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux,
before notching up full points against FIDE player Sergey Drygalov and Petrov Nikita of Montenegro.
Praggnanandhaa, coming into the season-ending tournament after securing a berth in next year’s Candidates tournament, was off too a fine start with a win against a lower-ranked FIDE opponent Tsaruk Maksim, following which he was held to a draw by country-mate Abhimanyu Puranik. His third-round game against another lower-ranked FIDE Grandmaster Rakhmanov Aleksandr too ended in a stalemate.
Young Nihal Sarin, following wins in the opening two rounds, suffered a defeat at the hands of Iranian GM Sina Movahed.
The situation could change drastically with two more rounds to go on day one.
In the women’s section, Grandmaster R Vaishali caused a major upset by defeating former women’s world classical and rapid champion Tan Zhongyi as she earned full points after the first three rounds.
Dronavalli Harika too was among the early leaders, keeping her slate clean after three rounds, while reigning world rapid champion Koneru Humpy (2 points) began strongly but drew her next two games to slip on the first day.
The tournament will see the Rapid event being played across 13 rounds in the Open category and 11 rounds in the women’s section with a time control of 15 minutes and a 10-second increment per move.
The Blitz event will be divided into the Swiss Tournament (19 round in Open and 15 in women), where the top-four players will advance to the four-game knockout matches.
