Hamburg, Feb 8: World Champion D Gukesh qualified for the knockout stage in the first event of the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour, despite losing to the world’s highest-rated player, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, in the ninth and final round of the qualifiers.
With a total of 3.5 points, Gukesh finished a rare event without a single win, drawing seven matches and losing two.
However, this was enough for him to secure eighth place in the ten-player format, which could be described as one of the strongest chess events, albeit with a twist as the initial piece positions were altered.
Playing with white against Carlsen, Gukesh had several opportunities for a draw but, as ambitious as ever, he pushed for more and eventually lost. Carlsen said, “He (Gukesh) made seven draws, he was winning some and losing some, and it needs to be studied.”
Iranian-turned-French Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja and Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan topped the table with 6.5 points out of a possible nine in the round-robin rapid format, which allowed ten minutes for each player, plus a ten-second increment. (PTI)
