India’s world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, hoped for a comeback at Bucharest this week after his dismal Freestyle performances in north Germany and Paris in the spring. Instead, the top-seeded 18-year-old was defeated by France’s pair of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, in 31 moves, and Alireza Firouzja, in 69 moves, before scoring a 44-move win, against the US’s Levon Aronian, in Thursday’s eighth and penultimate round.
Gukesh has dropped from third to fifth in the Fide world rankings, and ended up tied sixth to ninth in the 10-man Bucharest field, scoring 4/9 with one win, six draws, and two defeats. Two rounds earlier, he was tied last.
