Reigning World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju lost his opening game of the Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown exhibition event to Magnus Carlsen but then bounced back to rack up three wins and two draws in his remaining games to end the first day of the event as the tournament leader. The even also features players like Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana.
After the first day of the event ended, Gukesh has four points out of a possible six. Gukesh ended the day pocketing a cool $3000 as bonus for his three wins. After the first defeat against Carlsen, he held the world no 1 from Norway to a draw in game two. Then, he defeated Nakamura in their first game, before another draw. Against Caruana, Gukesh claimed two back-to-back victories to end the day on top of the four-player standings.
“It started with the loss, but I was still happy with the game,” Gukesh told the St Louis Chess Club in an interview after the end of the day.
Gukesh will be headlining the 206-player field at the FIDE World Cup in Goa at the start of November along with India’s top players like Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi.
Carlsen ended the day second behind the world champion from India thanks to two wins and a defeat while the rest of his games ended in draws. Meanwhile Nakamura was in third place and Caruana was last, just days after he claimed the US Championship title. Caruana had just one victory on the first day.
The event will see players pocket one point for a win on Day 1, two points for victory on Day 2 and three points for wins on the final day. The event also offers bonus prizes of $1,000 per win on day one, $2,000 per win on day two, and $3,000 per win on day three.
The exhibition event, which follows the Clutch Chess Legends clash between former world champions Viswanathan Anand and Garry Kasparov, has a total prize fund of $412,000.
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