Reigning world champion D Gukesh will tackle Fabiano Caruana within the quarter-finals of the Weissenhaus leg of the continued Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, on Sunday. The India No. 1 misplaced to Magnus Carlsen within the remaining spherical of the round-robin stage, and completed in eighth spot, which was additionally the ultimate qualification berth. Gukesh managed to muster seven attracts and two losses, in a marketing campaign which has highlighted his weak spot in shorter codecs.
Fabiano Caruana, who completed third, determined to call D Gukesh as his quarter-final opponent.
Within the ongoing Grand Slam Tour, the gamers who end within the top-four of the standings within the preliminary spherical of every leg, get to pick their opponents, who end at fifth to eighth place. Alireza Firouzja, who completed on prime of the standings, picked sixth-placed Vincent Keymer as his quarter-final opponent. In the meantime, Javokhir Sindarov picked Hikaru Nakamura as his opponent. The Uzbek GM completed second, and Nakamura got here fifth.
Fabiano Caruana picks D Gukesh
Caruana, who completed third, determined to call Gukesh as his quarter-final opponent. The pair had an epic draw on the preliminary spherical. Then again, Magnus Carlsen, who got here fourth, ended up with Nodirbek Abdusattorov. In the meantime, Vladimir Fedoseev and Levon Aronian will battle for the ninth place.
Gukesh’s defeats within the round-robin stage have been in opposition to Firouzja, who secured a one-sided victory. Then he misplaced to Carlsen, resigning through the end-game. Though he didn’t seal a win, Gukesh remains to be favorite to clinch the title, having proven his pedigree on the Candidates and World Championship final 12 months. In the meantime, he was very near additionally profitable the Tata Masters this 12 months, however a late surge from R Praggnanandhaa noticed the 19-year-old clinch a tie-breaker title victory.
After his win in opposition to Gukesh, Carlsen was additionally seen soaking in victory because it was additionally probably the most highly-anticipated match for followers, a sport between the reigning world champion and the World No. 1. Talking 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.”