Reigning world champion D Gukesh will take on Fabiano Caruana in the quarter-finals of the Weissenhaus leg of the ongoing Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, on Sunday. The India No. 1 lost to Magnus Carlsen in the final round of the round-robin stage, and finished in eighth spot, which was also the final qualification berth. Gukesh managed to muster seven draws and two losses, in a campaign which has highlighted his weakness in shorter formats.
In the ongoing Grand Slam Tour, the players who finish in the top-four of the standings in the preliminary round of each leg, get to select their opponents, who finish at fifth to eighth position. Alireza Firouzja, who finished on top of the standings, picked sixth-placed Vincent Keymer as his quarter-final opponent. Meanwhile, Javokhir Sindarov picked Hikaru Nakamura as his opponent. The Uzbek GM finished second, and Nakamura came fifth.
Fabiano Caruana picks D Gukesh
Caruana, who finished third, decided to name Gukesh as his quarter-final opponent. The pair had an epic draw at the preliminary round. On the other hand, Magnus Carlsen, who came fourth, ended up with Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Meanwhile, Vladimir Fedoseev and Levon Aronian will battle for the ninth position.
Gukesh’s defeats in the round-robin stage were against Firouzja, who secured a one-sided victory. Then he lost to Carlsen, resigning during the end-game. Although he failed to seal a win, Gukesh is still favourite to clinch the title, having shown his pedigree at the Candidates and World Championship last year. Meanwhile, he was very close to also winning the Tata Masters this year, but a late surge from R Praggnanandhaa saw the 19-year-old clinch a tie-breaker title victory.
After his win against Gukesh, Carlsen was also seen soaking in victory as it was also the most highly-anticipated match for fans, a game between the reigning world champion and the World No. 1. Speaking after his win, Carlsen boasted, “I think, honestly, there was not a single point in the game where it was realistic that he could play for a win. That hasn’t stopped him from playing for a win in the past, but I think the practical chances were always with me, especially with the time. What generally… happens there is that when things start going downhill, they just collapse because as soon as I get my pieces going, this pawn if not located, it’s just unstoppable.”
