Gukesh suffers hat-trick of defeats at Grand Swiss; Nihal Sarin grabs lead

SAMARKAND (Uzbekistan): World champion D Gukesh’s struggles continued as he slumped to a third successive defeat, losing to 16-year-old Turkish Grandmaster Ediz Gurel in the seventh round of the FIDE Grand Swiss here on Thursday.

Coming off reverses to USA’s Abhimanyu Mishra and Nikolas Theodorou of Greece, the rest day did little to arrest Gukesh’s slide as he blundered a bishop in the end game to extend his losing streak.

He now has three points from seven outings and needs to win all of his matches to stay in contention.

Meanwhile, Indian GM Nihal Sarin grabbed a share of the lead after a thrilling victory over overnight leader Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran.

He is joined at the top by German GM Matthias Bluebaum, who defeated Arjun Erigaisi. Both have 5.5 points.

Seven players, including Vidit Gujrathi, Iranian-French star Alireza Firouzja, Uzbek GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Americans Hans Niemann and Abhimanyu Mishra, are in joint second place with five points each.

They all won their respective matches in the seventh round to move within half a point of the lead.