Carlsen on the brink of losing No 1 spot to Caruana

Bengaluru: Magnus Carlsen is on the brink of losing his No 1 spot after more than 15 years at the top. After four consecutive draws in the fast classic group stage of the Total Chess pilot in Budapest, Carlsen lost to Haik Martirosyan with Black on Friday. Contrastingly, Caruana, on an unbeaten run so far, defeated Vincent Keymer to climb to 2800.3. Only nine points now separate both players on the live classical rating list. Incidentally, it was Martirosyan’s first Fide-rated classical meeting against Carlsen.

Caruana, long among the world's strongest and most consistent players, has spent much of his career in Carlsen's shadow. The two met in the 2018 World Championship match, which produced 12 consecutive draws before Carlsen prevailed in the tiebreaks. Should Caruana sustain his winning run and Carlsen's struggles continue, the American could find himself at world No. 1 when the next official ratings are published.

Carlsen has been struggling with classical chess in its various forms. At Norway Chess earlier this year, he lost twice to Praggnanandhaa and finished in the bottom half of the standings.

Among the Indians, Arjun Erigaisi ended up making a miraculous escape after Wesley So went from winning to turning down a draw to blundering and losing.

The only two female players in the tournament played each other on Friday with Bibisara Assaubayeva defeating Vaishali in their first game.