Gukesh’s coach explains how world champion solved Magnus Carlsen and Arjun Erigaisi puzzles

For the second straight game at Norway Chess, world champion Gukesh Dommaraju managed to squeeze water out of stone, grinding away from a disadvantageous position until a win appeared.

- GNS News Agency

On Sunday, it was world no 1 Magnus Carlsen who lost a game which he should have won against Gukesh. On Tuesday, it was Arjun Erigaisi, who also had a significant advantage on the board and on the clock at one point, but then saw Gukesh force a resignation in 92 moves. Both victories were the first time Gukesh had defeated them in classical chess (he had lost six times to Arjun before Monday). The two wins also helped Gukesh go from at the bottom of the six-player standings to second spot.“l was just losing at some point, was slowly getting outplayed. From the opening, nothing went my way,” Gukesh said. “But once | got to this position, | had to keep making moves that don’t lose on the spot. And then in the time scramble, things happen.”On Sunday and Monday, things happened, alright! But as Gukesh’s second Grzegorz Gajewski would explain to journalists from India covering the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger after the game, Gukesh was making them happen. More on that later.First, here's what was happening on the board on Monday: Arjun had the upper hand as per the eval bar until the 24th move. Gukesh had barely 15 minutes on his clock at this stage. Arjun had 37. In the previous games where the world champion had lost, he had admitted that his time management had not been the best. At Norway Chess, players get 120 minutes on their clock and have no increments in the first 40 moves, rather than from the first move itself. Then they get just 10 seconds per move from move 41, which makes managing their clock a critical skill.By move 27, Gukesh was up a pawn on the board. By move 30, both players had just over seven minutes left on their clocks. This was also the phase where Gukesh mounted his comeback. After making Arjun’s king run around a few times using his rook, Gukesh gobbled up another pawn from Arjun on move 48. One move later, he had j