Gukesh bounces back in style after underwhelming USA trip with clinical start to FIDE Grand Swiss campaign

World champion Dommaraju Gukesh bounced back from underwhelming displays in recent events with a strong start to his campaign at the FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Thursday. Gukesh, who had a disappointing run in the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz as well as Sinquefield Cup in the US last month, defeated French Grandmaster Etienne Bacrot in 45 moves while playing as black and starting off with a Caro-Kann Defense.`

The 19-year-old Indian GM, who has had a mixed run so far this year, did not shy away from sacrificing his pieces from time to time, with both his rooks getting knocked off the board along with a knight. Gukesh, however, managed to create enough pressure with his remaining pieces to gnaw away at the Frenchman’s defence, especially his Queen that he advanced at the very end to seal the deal.

Pragg, Arjun held to draws as Divya suffers 51-move defeat

Gukesh’s triumph was the key takeaway from the opening round of the tournament that is taking place at the Silk Road EXPO in Samarkand, with top seed R Praggnanandhaa and fellow Indian star Arjun Erigaisi being held to draws and Women’s World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh losing against compatriot Abhimanyu Puranik.

Deshmukh, who had been granted a wildcard entry into the ‘Open’ section along with Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina, lost to fellow Indian GM Puranik in 51 moves while playing as white.

Praggnanandhaa, who is set to compete in the Grand Chess Tour Grand Finals in Sao Paulo starting 26 September, was held to a draw by USA’s Jefferey Xiong, which was also the result in Arjun’s Round 1 meeting with Russian-Spanish GM Maksim Chigaev.

And it wasn’t just Gukesh who ended up on the winning side on Thursday; senior GM Vidit Gujrathi triumphed over Russian-German GM Alexander Donchenko while playing as white, forcing his opponent to raise the white flag of surrender in just 37 moves.

The FIDE Grand Swiss will witness a total of 11 rounds being played between 4 to 15 September, with the two top finishers qualifying for next year’s Candidates Tournament. And since Gukesh is the defending world champion, he doesn’t have much incentive at the tournament other than regaining his lost form and confident after his sub-par trip to the United States.

How Indians fared in Round 1 of FIDE Grand Swiss 2025

Open: Jeffery Xiong (Usa) drew with R Praggnanandhaa; Arjun Erigaisi drew with Maksim Chigaev (Esp); Etienne Bacrot (Fra) lost to D Gukesh; Vidit Gujrathi beat Alexander Donchenko (Ger); P Harikrishna lost to Anton Demchenko (Slo); Nihal Sarin drew with Rasmus Svane (Ger); Aryan Chopra playing Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri); Luke Leon Mendonca drew with Andrey Esipenko (Fid); Aydin Suleymanli (Aze) vs Murali Karthikeyan; Radoslav Wojtaszek (Pol) drew with V Pranav; Raunak Sadhwani drew with Jules Moussard (Fra); S L Narayanan drew with Alexander Grischuk (Fid); Rauf Mamedov (Aze) drew with Aditya Mittal; Divya Deshmukh lost to Abhimanyu Puranik.

Women: Yulia Osmak (Ukr) lost to Vantika Agrawal; Marcel Eforimski (Isr) drew with D Harika; R Vaishali beat Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (Uzb).