Magnus Carlsen was proved right as D Gukesh’s Freestyle Chess struggles continued. The India No. 1 had a miserable showing in Paris, settling for joint-11th position with fellow Indian Vidit Gujrathi. Among the Indians, Arjun Erigaisi had the best performance, coming fifth in the standings.

Meanwhile, R Praggnanandhaa came ninth in the standings. Ahead of the Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam event, Carlsen had predicted that Gukesh would miss out on qualifying for the knockout round. Speaking with American Fabiano Caruana on Twitch, the World No. 1 said, “Everyone’s at risk, of course. But Gukesh, Niemann, Vincent, Maxime.. Vidit on paper is going to struggle a bit.”
Analysing the participants, Carlsen also felt that Weissenhaus winner Vincent Keymer might not qualify for the knockouts, which was proved wrong.
Meanwhile, Carlsen also labelled Erigaisi as a “very, very tricky” competitor. His prediction on Erigaisi proved to be right as he also beat the Norwegian in Round 2 of the round-robin stage. In the opening round, he defeated Caruana. Despite losing to Erigaisi, Carlsen ended up winning the event, beating Hikaru Nakamura in the final. Meanwhile, Caruana came third.
Arjun Erigaisi soaks in glory and D Gukesh’s Freestyle Chess struggles continue
Erigaisi also took home USD 50,000, and revelled in his success after beating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the fifth-place play-off. Speaking to Chessbase India, he said, “This is one of the most fun tournaments I have had in the last few years.”
“No pressure. It was very easy to play,” he added.
Also speaking to the official broadcaster after his win vs Maxime, he said, “It was disappointing to not be able to play for first spot, but it’s practice for other freestyle tournaments. So I wouldn’t call it frustrating.”
“Losing to Hikaru was disappointing because I got a better position out of the opening in both games. After losing the first game to Nepo, I was not so optimistic,” he concluded.
Gukesh had a winless run in Weissenhaus, but he fared better in that Grand Slam event, finishing in eighth position. The Weissenhaus event was won by Vincent Keymer.