How Gukesh won 1st game as chess world champion after finding escape route vs Anish Giri
Anish Giri slumped on the backrest of his chair and stayed there for a while. Then, he hunched over and planted a palm on his forehead in a universally accepted sign of anguish. He’d just spent most of the first round game at the Tata Steel chess tournament forcing his opponent, the newly-minted world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, into a corner. Just when checkmate seemed inevitable, with Gukesh running out of options — and out of time on the clock to think — Anish Giri made a blunder that will haunt the attic of his mind for years to come. In one hasty move of the wrist, Anish Giri had handed his 18-year-old opponent a get-out-of-jail-free card. Gukesh, who won the world championship last month on a similar blunder from his opponent Ding Liren, is not one to refuse gifts across the board. The 18-year-old from Chennai only landed in the Dutch city of Wijk aan Zee for the tournament on Saturday morning after receiving the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award from President Droupadi …