Gukesh springs a knight surprise on Nepomniachtchi
At just 17, D Gukesh is remarkably unflappable. Over the past fortnight in the biggest tournament of his young career, he’s rarely tripped up in form or judgement. The Indian teen’s Round 10 match-up against co-leader Ian Nepomniachtchi was supposed to be his stiffest test. The winner would be seen as potentially the clear favourite to win the tournament. Gukesh chose to take the fight to the twotime Candidates winner by uncorking a surprise on the fourth move. It ended up earning him a comfortable draw with Black, keeping him in the shared lead with four rounds remaining.
Gukesh picked what’s known as the Cozio Defense with 4…Nge7, an unorthodox response to Ruy Lopez, to throw his opponent off. His knight galloped from the g-file to the e7 square. Almost in reflex, the Russian raised his eyebrows, took a beat for a sip of water, pressed his palms together and looked away from the board.
“The big question is did Ian anticipate Nge7 to appear in the Candidates or has he been taken by surprise?” Peter Leko wondered, “It’s not easy. You start asking yourself what’s happening in this position? It’s such a different one…because you never really see the trade of knights and the knight from g8 heading to c6.”
“The computer shows Black has more resources in the variation,” said five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, “and people are looking for every little act of provocative opening they can find.”
Turns out Nepo was pretty surprised by Gukesh’s opening idea. “I didn’t know this Nge7 became trendy recently and it’s not as simple as it might seem,” he said after the game, “I had this d4 idea but I wasn’t sure what my notes were like afterwards…I wanted to put some pressure but he came up with an interesting choice in the opening…It’s hard to be ready for every line in chess.”
Nepo, who can be dangerous with White, found himself constricted by his opponent’s rare opening choice. The Russian has won World Championship games against Ding Liren in the Ruy Lopez but this line wasn’t something he perhaps has looked at recently. It promised to lead to complex and unexplored positions so he had to hold off on needless risks or a full-throttle press. It was perhaps the sensible thing to do. GM Simon Williams who has authored a course on the Cozio Defense as a repertoire option observed that White is often unprepared for this move and it’s not a playable variation from a practical point of view. “It is entirely objectively playable and there are very few lines where White can claim a clear edge and these almost certainly need to be known beforehand.”
Gukesh perhaps had a hint of ambition since he had access to the only open file on the board twenty-plus moves into the game. The Black rook was positioned to enter down the e-file. Nepo chose to stick to a solid game.
The Queens were traded off, followed by the minor pieces and the game petered down to a draw. Nepo pushed his pawn to h4 and extended his hand in a draw offer in an equal rook endgame. Gukesh moved his pawn to g6 before shaking hands and reminding his opponent that they hadn’t reached the mandatory 40-move mark earlier.
The Candidates tournament in Toronto has thrown up a nice mix of opening surprises. Praggnanandhaa employed the f5 idea earlier with the Black pieces in the Ruy Lopez in his win against fellow Indian Vidit Gujrathi. Unleashing an opening surprise not only conveys preparation and the will to battle but should the opponent be sufficiently surprised, it also hands an immediate psychological advantage.
“It’s (Nge7) an interesting line and has been known for quite some time but I thought it would be nice to surprise him in the opening…and yeah he was surprised,” Gukesh said afterwards, breaking into a smile.
Nepo might not be too pleased with himself for letting an opportunity to strike with White and take the sole lead in the tournament slip. For Gukesh, this one-up over the two-time World Championship challenger and holding a draw with the Black pieces must almost feel like a mini-victory.
Four more rounds remain and with three players – Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and R Praggnanandhaa – now placed half a point behind the leaders, the possibility of the tournament spilling into playoffs cannot be ruled out.