It is a splendid blue day on the edge of the North Sea. And Dommaraju Gukesh, 18, is housed in a hotel a hundred meters from the beach. But whoever expects to see him walking through her will do it in vain. Except in the rest days, just leave your room a few minutes before each round. His father has arranged for breakfast, lunch and dinner to use it. Both consider that (a month and a half ago, in Singapore, dethroning Chinese Liren Ding) has extreme importance.
“Use the hotel gymnasium, sometimes he briefly speaks with the press chiefs after the games. The first day of rest attended some journalists. But it has not gone to excursions with other players. He is always concentrated in the hotel. And he will not give any interview until Monday, ”several members of the organization explain to El País. On Friday he reached the stage 15 seconds before the GONG that starts each round, probably to avoid the autograph firm and dedicate very little time to the graphic reporters, who must leave at seven minutes.
If it does not spoil it in the last two rounds – with blacks on Saturday in front of the Dutch Jorden van Forest (10th of fourteen participants) and with white on Sunday in front of his compatriot Arjun Eyrigaisi (4th of the world when the tournament began, but 6th now, now, In crisis, because the penultimate goes) -, Gukesh can affirm that monacal life works very well. It remains undefeated, has risen from 5th to 3rd world, after surpassing this Friday the American Fabiano Caruana, and (if he wins both) he has a shot at the 2nd, also the American Hikaru Nakamura. He number onethe Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, 34, is still far; His absence in Wijk Aan Zee, one of his favorite tournaments for many years, is partly due to his recent marriage and honeymoon, and also to his preference for the chess modality Freestyle (Also called 960 or Sistema Fischer) to the detriment of the classic.
On the opening day, in front of the Dutch Anish Giri. The Indian launched himself with high risk and touched the defeat several times, but finally took advantage of his adversary time to score the point. Then he tempered his game approach, with four draws and a victory, until he put the turbo from the 7th round: he won his compatriot Pentala Harikrishna, made tables with the Indian Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, and fell folded to another Indian, Leon Mendonca , and the Dutch Max Warmerdam, before drawing a very tense fight (both spent more than an hour on the first ten movements) with Chinese Yi Wei, much more conservative and less bright than usual in it.
The leader’s persecutors are very fearsome: the aforementioned Praggnanandhaa (19 years, 8th of the world) and the Uzbeko Nodirbek Abdusatiov (20, 5th). His rivals in the last two rounds will be the Russian (with Serbian flag) Alexéi Sarana and the German Vincent Keymer for the Indian, and Erigaisi and Harikrishna for the Uzbeko. In case of drawing at first position, there will be a quick duel to decide the winner of the Roland Garros of chess.
The performance of the three youngest participants in Tournament B (Challengers) was expected with great curiosity. Who most impresses is the China Miaoyi Lu (today turns 15), whose quality of play is well above normal. The other two, the Turk Ediz Gurel, 16, and especially the Argentine Faustino Oro, 11, give the impression of accusing how imposing it is to play surrounded by stars and with hundreds of spectators (just 10% are women) and of fans who dispute the multiple fans tournaments over two weeks (with less women yet); In total, more than 1,200 chess players pass every year through Wijk Aan Zee under the sponsorship of the Indian multinational Tata Steel steel. The leader of the Challengers is the Dutch Erwin L’Ami followed half a point of the Czech Thai Nguyen and the Azerbaijan Aydin Suleymanli; The winner will have a place in the 2026 Teacher Tournament.
The only remarkable incident in fifteen days occurred in the Challengers when Uzbeko Nodirbek Yakúbooev, 22, refused to shake his hand, in the first round, of India Divya Deshmukh, 19, claiming that – according to him – religion Muslim is forbidden. After being admonished by the organizers, the agreement was reached that he would greet the hands on his chest to the other three participating women. In addition, a few days later, Yakúboev gave some flowers and chocolate to Divya, as a sign of relief, since he had not previously warned India that he would not respond to his hand lying.
This Saturday, for the penultimate round against Van Forest, Gukesh arrived with a little more time (one minute), which he used in screw Each of its pieces, as well as the pawns, to focus them exactly on their initial boxes, perhaps as a way of venting the initial tension. If, in addition to being the head of the crown that Carlsen resigned in 2022, the youngest champion in history is winning the main tournaments of the year, the Norwegian may have to rethink his attitude. But, for the moment, the opinion of the number one It coincides with that of several experts: “Gukesh has an impressive calculation capacity, remembers a computer; But his understanding of the strategy leaves much to be desired compared to his virtues. ”
