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Teenage International Master Krishna Goutham emerged as an unexpected joint leader with three consecutive wins, while Indian stars D Gukesh and R. Praggnanandhaa had a slow but steady start in the FIDE World Rapid Championships on Friday.
The 15-year-old from Kerala, who has achieved notable success including being the runner-up at the National Championship, demonstrated his talent by securing full points in the first three rounds.
He shares the lead with world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, top Indian player Arjun Erigaisi, and top Russian GM Vladislav Artemiev, who has a 2700-plus rating.
With two more rounds remaining on the opening day, world classical chess champion Gukesh (2.5 points) also achieved a couple of good wins but was held back by a draw.
Praggnanandhaa managed two points after a win in the opening round followed by two draws.
However, the day belonged to Goutham, who defeated Serbian GM Indjic Aleksandar with black pieces, then overcame top Indian GM Aravindh Chithambaram with white, and finally outmanoeuvred Azerbaijan’s Radjabov Teimour.
Gukesh, who mentioned in a media interaction on Thursday that he didn’t have high expectations for the event, began with a hard-fought draw against Canadian GM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux, then secured full points against FIDE player Sergey Drygalov and Petrov Nikita of Montenegro.
Praggnanandhaa, entering the season-ending tournament after qualifying for next year’s Candidates tournament, started well with a win against lower-ranked FIDE opponent Tsaruk Maksim, followed by draws with compatriot Abhimanyu Puranik and lower-ranked FIDE Grandmaster Rakhmanov Aleksandr.
Young Nihal Sarin, after winning his first two rounds, suffered a defeat at the hands of Iranian GM Sina Movahed.
The situation could change significantly with two more rounds to go on day one.
In the women’s section, GM R. Vaishali caused a major upset by defeating former women’s world classical and rapid champion Tan Zhongyi, earning full points from the first three rounds.
Dronavalli Harika also emerged as an early leader with a clean slate after three rounds, while reigning world rapid champion Koneru Humpy (2 points) started strongly but drew her next two games, causing her to slip on the first day.
What Is The FIDE World Rapid Championships Format?
The tournament will see the Rapid event 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 rounds in Open and 15 in women), where the top four players will advance to the 4-game knockout matches.
(With inputs from Agencies)
