At round 7 of the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss standard chess tournament held in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) on September 11, defending world champion Gukesh Dommaraju (India) suffered his third consecutive defeat, this time against 16-year-old Turkish player Ediz Gurel.
In the game, Gukesh took charge of the black team and had a smooth start when he won the advantage after the start. However, he let the opponent take advantage of the open ears to counterattack. The match ended with a complicated situation, when both sides had good offers.
In the decisive situation, Gukesh chose to sacrifice the military statue to prevent white noise, but his two cars could not coordinate effectively to level the bar. Gurel's men operate more flexibly and quickly control the entire game. After 51 countries, Gukesh was forced to join hands to lose.
This victory helped Gurel become the second 16-year-old player to beat the world champion at the 2025 Grand Swiss, after Abhimanyu Mishra. Currently, Gurel is ranked 97th in the world with Elo 2,631, but is considered by experts to be one of the promising young talents of international chess.
With 3 consecutive defeats against Mishra, Nikolas Theodorou and Gurel, Gukesh have lost a total of 15.4 Elo, falling to 10th place in the world rankings. After 7 matches, he has only 3 points, a better record than the only female player in the Open group, Divya Deshmukh (3.5 points).
