Gukesh Dommaraju’s wretched kind on the Weissenhaus leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour continued because the world champion misplaced the primary sport of the quarter-final to Fabiano Caruana with white items on Sunday.
Gukesh could have an opportunity to degree on Monday when the 2 gamers play the second sport of the quarter-final with colors reversed.
Gukesh performed 9 video games within the fast time management earlier than Sunday — one sport every towards all the opposite gamers within the discipline — however didn’t handle to win a single sport. Gukesh had nearly snuck into the quarter-finals of the Weissenhaus occasion after ending forward of Vladimir Fedoseev and Levon Aronian within the standings. Solely eight gamers out of the ten made it to the knockout phases after the fast portion.
Gukesh was anticipated to do higher within the classical sport on Sunday, contemplating he thrives within the longest time management occasion. However Sunday’s defeat to Caruana means he has only one sport to avoid wasting his marketing campaign.
READ MORE: How does one practice for Freestyle Chess? Generally, you simply don’t!
The knockout stage of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Weissenhaus noticed 4 out of the 5 video games that have been performed ending in decisive outcomes. Gukesh, enjoying with white items, misplaced to Fabiano Caruana in 40 strikes whereas there have been additionally wins for Magnus Carlsen (who beat Nodirbek Abdusattarov with white) and Vincent Keymer (who beat Alireza Firouzja with black). Solely the Hikaru Nakamura versus Javokhir Sindarov sport resulted in a draw.
INTERACTIVE: How Gukesh misplaced to Fabiano Caruana
The best way the freestyle chess occasion is structured, gamers solely discover out quarter-hour earlier than the sport what the opening place will seem like.
Fabi defeats Gukesh of their first QF sport 🔥 #freestylechess pic.twitter.com/B70nmqAKp9
— Chess.com (@chesscom) February 9, 2025
On Monday, the opening place (Place 381) noticed the queens beginning on the h file.
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The opening place within the Gukesh vs Fabiano Caruana quarter-final sport on the Weissenhaus leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. (Screenshot: Lichess)
It was a sport the place Gukesh’s omnipotent queen sat on a nook of the board on h1 sq. twiddling its thumbs for 17 strikes.
The truth is, his queen moved simply thrice earlier than being picked off. His rook on the opposite nook additionally moved as soon as earlier than it was eradicated.
The sport noticed many accuracies and blunders from each gamers, as is to be anticipated in a freestyle chess sport with gamers solely studying their opening place quarter-hour earlier than the sport begins.
On high of that, there is no such thing as a second time management like there’s in occasions just like the Candidates and the World Championship. Which means gamers are compelled to assume lengthy and exhausting from the primary transfer itself and with the data that they solely get 30-second increments for every transfer they make after the preliminary 90 minutes.