New Delhi: Reigning world champion D Gukesh’s winless run continued at the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Weissenhaus, Germany on Monday as he lost in the second game of his second quarter-final against world no.3 Fabiano Caruana. Gukesh, who lost the first game with the white pieces on Sunday, went down while playing with the black pieces during the second game.
Gukesh resigned in just 18 moves against American Caruana to bow out of the tournament and will now play for the last four spots. Reacting to Gukesh’s defeat and his decision to resign in mere 18 moves in the 2nd game of the quarterfinal, world no.1 Magnus Carlsen said it was a prudent decision from the reigning world champion.
Carlsen decoded Gukesh’s defeat and said resigning was the right call from the 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster as he had little chance of making a comeback after he blundered a pawn out of the opening and Caruana gained a strong position in the game. Carlsen, however, insisted Gukesh had a chance while playing with the white pieces in the first game of the quarter-final on Sunday.
“I think in these mini-matches a lot will hinge on a single game. Yesterday’s game could have gone either way and today of course it was never very likely that Gukesh was going to come back and honestly I think he made a kind of prudent decision just resigning when he realised that he was not going to make a comeback,” Carlsen told Take Take Take when asked why the 2nd game was a one-sided affair.
“Just see it as a bit of a lost event in that sense. He had his chance yesterday, he didn’t take it and then you move on,” he added.
Carlsen, on the other hand, defeated Nodirbek Abdusattorov in both games in the quarter-finals to sail into the semis. He will now take on Vincent Keymer in the semi-final while Caruna will be up against Javokhir Sindarov, who defeated Hikaru Nakamura in the quarter-final.
7 draws, 3 defeats and 0 wins for Gukesh in Freestyle Chess Grand Slam
Gukesh has been winless in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour with seven draws and three defeats to his name. The reigning world champion lost against Alireza Firouzja in the 2nd round before going down against Carlsen in the final 9th round in the round-robin stage of the tournament. He still managed to qualify for the quarters with seven draws but lost to Caruana in the knockout stage to bow out of the tournament.
World no.1 Magnus Carlsen reacted to reigning world champion D Gukesh resigning in just 18 moves against Fabiano Caruana in the 2nd game of his quarter-final in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
