The youngest ever global title holder has had a hard time this year, but hopes for better in May, when he meets Magnus Carlsen in Norway Chess at Oslo, and in the autumn, when he defends his crown
India’s Gukesh Dommaraju, at 19 the youngest ever world champion, has had a hard time this year. The teenager has struggled at Wijk aan Zee, where he totalled a modest 50%, and then this week in Prague, where he was last after eight of the nine rounds, scoring just 2.5/8, without winning a single game.
With just Friday’s final round to be played, Prague is currently led by Nodirbek Abdusattorov on 5.5/8, as the Uzbekistan No 1 continues his winning streak from the London Classic and Wijk aan Zee.
The best game so far has been this win by the local Czech hero David Navara. The action-packed game includes queen and rook sacrifices and a pawn promotion, so is well worth playing through. The loser was so impressed by Navara’s creativity that he continued the game until he was checkmated.
Prague scores after Thursday’s eighth round were Abdusattorov 5.5, Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands) 5, Navara 4.5, Parham Maghsoodloo (Iran), Vincent Keymer (Germany) and Chithambaram Aravindh (India) 4, Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzbekistan), Hans Niemann (USA) and David Anton (Spain) 3.5, Gukesh 2.5.
