The American Grand Master Fabiano Caruana said that the feeling of Indian chess of Gukesh had paid the price of a bad opening when he had been eliminated from the reigning race of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 1 Monday (January 10) . Having already lost the match 1 of the quarterfinals against Caruana, the world champion of chess Gukesh faces a Do-Or-Die competition on Monday against the world No. 2, but he was forced to resign after only 18 moves after several blunders in the Hig-Match of the issues played in Weissenhaus, Germany.
Gukesh aggressively started two pawns with the sixth blow. He then played 6… G6?! That the computer engine labeled as an error and suggested 6… Bxa2 is the right movement. Later on movement 17, Gukesh again made a mistake by playing 17… C5?! When the best move was 17… ND7.
The match only lasted one after that when Caruana created a solid defense around his king with Kingside Castling and Gukesh decided to resign without hope to win the match and get a return.
Although the Forte de Gukesh is the classic format, it was estimated that it would be able to do well in the freestyle games with a classic time control, however, he has not yet won a single match in the Weissenhaus leg of the first chess to the great slam freestyle Tour 2025.
“Gukesh could have posed more problems”
After obtaining a comfortable passage to the semi-finals, Caruana said that the loss of an exciting match 1 in the quarter-finals and the implementation of a poor opening in match 2 led to the early elimination of GUKESH.
“It really happened yesterday. The game today, of course, he could probably have posed more problems for me, and he tried to sacrifice a pawn and create imbalances, but that was not the case, “said Caruana, speaking to Shoot. “I don’t think it’s a situation to do it, it was right away, and I didn’t make any mistakes, like conceptual errors. Sometimes the pawn sacrifice can be very, very dangerous. But in this case, it was like on Move Four, my position does not deserve this violent treatment. I thought, so yes, that’s what’s going on. As if he had gone there, it just didn’t work. His combination completely died, to a measure where he was just in a situation without hope very early.
“He did not want to prolong the torture, which I also understand, because I think that his chance of winning was approximately zero, unless a medical emergency, is almost zero. And yes, I think the starting position may not be too favorable to play for a victory. So it really comes back to this match yesterday, which was super close. And if it had been a different result, we would also have seen a different game today. »»
“Sometimes a pawn sacrifice can be very dangerous, but in this case, it was like on movement 4. My position does not deserve this violent treatment.”@Fabianocaruana eliminates the world champion of @Chess_Freestyle. pic.twitter.com/wmlprbvrjd
– Take to take (@taketaketakeapp) February 10, 2025
GUKESH CREATED HISTORY LAST LAST YEAR by Becoming The Youngest Chess World Champion AS HE DEFEATED DINGEN IN THE WORLD Chess Championship 2024 at The Age of 18. BESIDES GUKESH, The Weissenhaus Leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour Also include Other Top Young Players include Javokhir Sindarov, 19, Vincent Keymer, 20 years old, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
This added an additional layer to the Freestyle chess tour, which is considered a battle between established players like Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Caruana and the next young chess talents.
While Carlsen and Caruana are the only senior players to reach the semi-finals, Keymer and Sindarov have also evolved towards the last four floors.
Caruana, however, believes that senior players have an advantage in the format of freestyle chess. They do not have to spend too much energy preparing the opening, and they also have a lot of experience, which helps them to design better strategies.
Experienced players have advantages in freestyle failures: Caruana
“Perhaps we still have a little advantage here, due to some of the qualities that the youngest have, which understands the energy they have, an energy advantage over us. They have a little more energy, although we are not old men or anything. But still, it is a little different when you have thirty that when you are in their twenties, in terms of being able to prepare four hours before a match, and if you play a tournament that lasts three weeks, and here, Preparation before the game is not existing, ”said Caruana.
“10 minutes ago, it doesn’t undermine your energy at all. So it’s a little more, I think, which can be felt. And I mean, I cannot say that for myself, but perhaps for some of the other players, they are not as focused on the intensive opening work that we have experienced. You know, when you work like eight hours a day on your openings in their twenties and at some point, you have other life responsibilities, and perhaps not the motivation to do it every day. Although I always work on failures very regularly, I suppose that if we are talking about Magnus (Carlsen) and Hikaru (Nakamura), they also work on failures quite often and are very serious about failures.
“But the kind of work you know, if you talk about guys like Gukesh in the opening, it may not be the same level, if you look at the older guys, and above all getting out of A world championship. It is an incredible amount of work that goes. Thus, the candidates, the preparation of the world championship and all that. Certainly, Gukesh is one of the best prepared and most workers at the moment. »»
Compared to conventional failures, in freestyle failures, the starting positions of the parts on the rear row are randomized. At the Grand Chelem, the positions are only revealed 15 minutes before the match, which means that a player cannot prepare an opening in advance. This helps promote creativity and unpredictability.
