With his defeat of 0.5-1.5 in the hands of Alireza Firouzja during the seventh place eliminations on the last day of the competition, of Gukesh finished with 11 draws and six defeats on eight days of competition during the ‘Freestyle Chess Grand Slam event in Weissenhaus, Germany.
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Gukesh Domomraju had arrived at the Luxury of Weissenhaus private nature on the German Baltic Coast to the north with the spotlights firmly on him. The feeling of 18 -year -old Indian chess, after all, had been crowned the youngest world champion in the history of sport as recently as December, beating Dingn in the final in China.
He would then underline the fact that the triumph in Singapore was not a stroke of luck by almost winning the chess event of Tata Steel at Wijk Aan Zee, in the Netherlands the following month, losing against compatriot R Praggnanandhaa in The shooting breakdown to finish finalist for a second for a second consecutive year.
It was in Weissenhaus that Gukesh came face to face with World No. 1 and the co-founder of the Freestyle Magnus Carlsen chess for the first time since his replacing the world championship. Some of the Indian chess community had even supported it to find themselves on the winning side against the Norwegian who is considered one of the greatest players of all time.
Gukesh struggles like never before in an unknown format
However, few, however, would have expected that he is fighting in the tournament, to the point where he would end up not only near the 10 players’ ranking, but would leave the station without a single victory. Friday, Gukesh had a last change on a winning note in Weissenhaus – the eighth and last day of the event – in match 2 of the eliminations of seventh place against Alireza Firouzja after the end of match 1.
The international mastery Tania Sachdev was in comment service to Weissenhaus with British director general David Howell, American IM and the popular Streamer Levy Rozman, among others, and she had noted that Gukesh seemed to have mentally checked the tournament in her seventh game against Firouzja.
Read also | Magnus Carlsen on the world champion of Gukesh: “He was trying to do a little too much”
This certainly seemed to be the case for Gukesh towards the end when the precision of his movements took a major success, and he allowed the Iranian-French director general to grasp the game with a series of errors. Friday, it was his blunder in his 19th move that allowed Firouzja – who had defeated him during their quick match of the second round the day of the opening – to take control of the procedures and finally boxer gukesh in a corner And force him to raise his white flag.
With its defeat of 0.5-1.5 in the seventh place eliminations, Gukesh finished with 11 draws and six defeats of fast and classic temporal controls over eight days of competition. For a player who had a formidable race in 2024, in which he also became the youngest champion of candidates and played in the golden scanning of India in the 45th Olympiad, the Weissenhaus campaign is nothing less than a debacle.
Read also | Gukesh’s stable heart rate stands out in Weissenhaus despite a disappointing campaign
Maybe Gukesh needs a good break before coming back stronger. And no, we are not talking about a “break” where he is busy attending reward functions and meeting high -level dignitaries, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But the one where he is off for a while, allowing his gifted mind to refocus.
