The playing hall burst into applause. Even Gukesh Dommaraju broke into a rare smile after shaking hands with his opponent Alireza Firouzja on Thursday in the first game of their classification match for 7th spot at the Weissenhaus leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. Gukesh had not managed to beat Alireza, but it was a draw that was as good as a win for a player who is still winless at the luxury resort village in Germany. The applause was for the way Gukesh had managed to salvage a draw from a completely losing position. It was one of those games where the eval bar favoured Alireza from the start: in fact, the bar tipped over in the Frenchman’s favour after the first moves from both players. This was because Gukesh, playing with black pieces, had opted to hop the wrong knight. Story continues below this ad INTERACTIVE: How Gukesh evaded Alireza Firouzja to force a draw At one point in the game, the evaluation bar was down on the floor indicating a …