New Delhi: World champion D Gukesh on Monday was ousted from the Freestyle Grand Slam Chess after receiving second straight loss to American GM Fabiano Caruana in their quarterfinal match in Hamburg, Germany, on Monday.
After going down in the first game with white pieces on Sunday, all Gukesh required was a win to keep his chances alive in the tournament and force the match to a tiebreaker. The Indian teenager started with a blunder in the early stage, losing his pawn, which allowed Caruana to take control of the situation.
The American GM soon turned the board into a conventional chessboard within 15 moves and then exerted the pressure on the 18th move with the advantage of a pawn. Gukesh, on seeing that there was no way back, eventually resigned with a customary handshake.
The freestyle chess is composed around 960 random positions, shifting the backward position of pieces while all the pawns in the front row remain intact. This traditional format was introduced by Bobby Fischer. This has been an alternative drawing parallels with the classical chess format.
Gukesh resigns, Caruana advances to the Semifinals!https://t.co/XjfDThS6MQ#FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/tyQmSWaVmR
— chess24 (@chess24com) February 10, 2025
Caruana has played the freestyle format for a while and used to his advantage to outsmart the Indian youngster, who hasn’t had much experience in this domain.
Although Gukesh has been knocked out from the quarter-final stage, the 18-year-old will continue to remain in the competition to fight for the 5th to 8th positions, basically the last four spots.
World No.1 Magnus Carlsen pounced on the error by Nodribek Abdusattorov and went on wrap their quarterfinal match (second tie) in 23 moves to take the lead. GM Vincent Keymer also registered a win against GM Alireza Firouzja while American GM Hikaru Nakamura allowed Uzbek GM Javokhir Sindarov to walk off with a draw.
Indian chess prodigy D. Gukesh was eliminated from the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam quarterfinals after suffering a second consecutive loss to Fabiano Caruana. While out of the quarterfinals, Gukesh will continue competing for 5th-8th place. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
