Warsaw (Poland), May 9: World Champion D Gukesh endured a shaky start to the blitz section but recovered ground with a commanding victory over Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the ninth round of the Super Rapid and Blitz here.
After finishing the rapid section with nine points out of a possible 18, Gukesh collected four more points from the opening nine blitz rounds to take his tally to 13 out of 27 at the halfway stage of the blitz competition.
Hans Moke Niemann of the United States continued to lead the tables despite a very mediocre show on the first day of blitz.
The American moved to 16.5 points after scoring 3.5/9 and is now a half point ahead of compatriot Wesley So. The third American Fabiano Caruana shares the third spot with Slovenian Vladimir Fedoseev on 15 points apiece, while Gukesh comes in next two points behind.
French duo of Firouzja Alireza and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave share the sixth spot on 12.5 points alongside Duda, while the next World championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan is in ninth spot on 12 points. Polish Radoslav Wojtaszak completed the ten-player lineup with 10 points in his bag.
Gukesh started the third day of the tournament with a couple of losses against Wojtaszek and Alireza and lost two more against Caruana and Sindarov. The latter pulled one back against Gukesh after losing in the rapid game.
The highlight for Gukesh was an impressive win over leader Hans Niemann before the Indian rounded off the day with a commanding victory against Jan-Krzysztof Duda. With nine more blitz rounds remaining, the tournament is headed for an exciting finish. (PTI)
