Vidit Gujrathi falls to shock defeat in the opening round of the Hainan Danzhou Masters
Third ranked Indian Grandmaster Vidit Santosh Gujrathi suffered a surprise defeat at the hands of Jan Krzysztof Duda in the opening round of the Danzhou Super Grandmaster Tournament in China. Vidit was the only player to suffer defeat in round one and is currently last on the competition table.
23-year old Vidit Santosh Gujrathi is only the fourth Indian ever to have crossed the ELO rating of 2700 and was rated 2718 as of January 2018. The youngster is currently the third highest ranked Indian chess player behind Viswanathan Anand and Pentala Harikrishna. Vidit is currently involved in the ninth Hainan Danzhou Masters tournament that is being held at at the Baiyun Havana Resort Hotel in the town of Luzhou Guangcun in China. The tournament featured a field of eight young and promising Grandmasters from across the globe and promised some exciting games along the course of the competition.
But the tournament began on a sour note for the young Indian as he fell to a shock defeat at the hands of Polish youngster Jan Krzysztof Duda in the opening round of the tournament itself. Vidit Duda was the only victor in round one of the tournament after he beat Vidit and took an early lead in the tournament.
Traditionally, Vidit is a very difficult opponent to beat and he hadn't lost a single game this year until today’s defeat. The lad from Nashik is always prepared and hardly takes too much risk during his matches. But his Polish counterpart pounced on the first opportunity he got in the game to unsettle Vidit and go top on of the table.
Vidit offered a trade of his queenside rook for its black counterpart as he came out of his safe opening. Duda hardly had a choice here and was forced to exchange. But the Polish GM played a masterstroke in the next move after the exchange as he uncorked 24…Nxc3, a knight sacrifice that suddenly changed the dynamic of the position. This took Vidit by surprise as he tried and countered on the kingside but faltered soon
Duda played another stunning move as he temporarily sacrificed his queen first and trapped the white queen to shut down any counter-play by his opponent. As a result, Vidit was dead lost in this endgame in spite of being a whole piece up.