Grand Chess Tour: Gukesh dominates Wesley So in Croatia rapid, takes big lead into blitz

Gukesh Dommaraju, the World Champion in classical chess, once against proved his growing stature as a force to recknon with as a force in the shorter formats by beating American Wesley So in the final round of rapid portion of Grand Chess Tour's SuperUnited Croatia Rapid & Blitz 2025 tournament here on Friday. 

Gukesh, the youngest World Champion in chess, scored a totally dominant win over Wesley So in the ninth round and extended his lead at the top of the table, moving to 14 points from nine rounds. Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland is placed second with 11 points, with former World Champion and World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway third with 10. India's Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu is fourth with nine points.

Gukesh defeated Wesley in 38 moves with white pieces to secure his seventh win of the rapid section. It is a big upset in rapid chess as Wesley is quite strong in the shorter version of the game and is ranked 15th, while Gukesh is placed 42nd. The Indian GM was under pressure coming into the rapid section of this event, as his forte is Classical chess. World No.1 Magnus Carlsen even dismissed him as a "weak player" in rapid chess. But Gukesh silenced his critics with a sensational display in rapid chess, beating, among other,s Carlsen himself in the sixth round.

The 18-year-old Grandmaster from Chennai will now go into the blitz portion of the third round of the 2025 Grand Chess Tour on top with a huge lead over the field, as he has so far won six consecutive matches in the event.

The nine rounds of rapid action will be followed by 18 rounds of blitz in the event, in which four out of the five highest-rated players in the world -- Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and Gukesh Dommaraju -- are included.

In other games in the round, Alireza Firouzja of France drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov; Magnus Carlsen was held by Anish Giri, while Praggnanandhaa also shared the point with Jan-Krzysztof Duda. On the last board, Fabiano Caruana defeated Ivan Saric with white pieces.

Picture Courtesy: IANS