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D Gukesh almost breaks down after losing to teenager, Indian GM shellshocked after hattrick of defeats - Watch
D Gukesh simply put his head down, and his confidence looked broken into bits and pieces, as he shook hands with Ediz Gurel, accepting defeat.
D Gukesh is currently in poor form and the reigning World Champion suffered his third defeat in a row at the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament, on Thursday. The 19-year-old lost to Turkish GM Ediz Gurel, who is 16, in the seventh round of the tournament. Before losing to Gurel, Gukesh lost to Abhimanyu Mishra and Nikolas Theodorou in Round 5 and 6 respectively.
Speaking after his win against Gukesh, Gurel said, "It was a crazy tough game."
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"I was pretty happy to see the pairings. It’s always great to play the world champion, whether I lose or not. yeah, he’s not doing so well in this tournament, but I believe he can just pull things through. He’s a great player, a world champion!"
It was an epic match as Gurel blundered on move 27 and both players exchanged queens on move 29. But the on move 40, Gukesh made a blunder and two moves later, he gave a bishop in exchange for two pawns. It gave Gurel a huge advantage. "I actually blundered at some point and I got very miserable because I didn’t see a move. I thought my position was very bad but I just thought I had to give my best, maybe he will make a mistake. Luckily, it happened" said Gurel.
Gukesh looked shellshocked as the defeat dawned on him. He put his hand on his head in disbelief. Then he simply put his head down, and his confidence looked broken into bits and pieces, as he shook hands with Gurel, accepting defeat.
Here is the video:
Gukesh will face World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh in Round 8, on Friday. Gukesh began the tournament wih two wins and two draws, but then his form dipped and he fell to three consecutive defeats.
In the ongoing tournament, Divya has fallen to two defeats and has bagged three draws. She also won two games, beating higher-rated players, and has 3.5 points. She is ahead of Gukesh ahead of their showdown.
