Chess Olympiad R9: Gukesh channels his world champion self to keep India in gold hunt

NEW DELHI: Since becoming world champion two years ago, noise has followed Dommaraju Gukesh almost everywhere, at times making it feel as though he isn't worthy of the title he rightfully won.But on Friday, when India needed the youngest world champion in history to deliver a win, he did exactly that, turning around an almost-lost position to beat Germany's Alexander Donchenko in Round 9 of the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.It was the kind of performance that felt like it could quiet the criticism all on its own.How Gukesh turned the tables on DonchenkoPlaying black, Gukesh traded off his dark-squared bishop early to damage White's pawn structure, then spent the middlegame manoeuvring patiently, repositioning knights, expanding on the queenside with a5-a4, and probing for weaknesses without rushing.For a long stretch, the position stayed murky and roughly balanced, with both sides shuffling pieces and neither able to land a clean…