 "After coach, D Gukesh gets chess legend's support amid Freestyle Chess struggle: 'It's completely different'")
Gukesh Dommaraju experienced one of the lowest moments of his career recently when he returned from the opening event of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Weissenhaus, Germany without a single win . Just two months after becoming the youngest world champion in chess history, Gukesh finished 8th out of 10 players at the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort located in Germany’s Baltic coast to the north.
Gukesh’s trainer Grzegorz Gajewski had recently come to his defence , stating that the Chess960 format is one that is quite different from Classical chess – the format in which Gukesh has achieved a lot more success in his career. And echoing the Polish Grandmaster’s views is Hungarian chess legend Judit Polgar, who stated that Freestyle Chess is “competely different”.
“Oh, it’s completely different, because you have to have a completely different mindset, completely different priorities, both we are used to, because as I said before you cannot look for harmony really you have to see it very concretely in some ways. At the same time, sometimes you have to look at it very much from strategic point of view,” the GM told ChessBase India.
Judit Polgar cites Magnus Carlsen’s example
Polgar, widely regarded as the greatest female chess player of all time, went on to cite world No 1 and five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen’s example while explaining why it isn’t easy for the best of players to adjust to Freestyle Chess.
“So, for example, Magnus was complaining that he cannot bring out his knight to g6 because knight f3, knight g5, yesterday, right? Yes. so there are a lot of small details which we are absolutely not used to, so you do have to have an extremely fresh look.
“I think there are very few things that you can put together and rely on from your classical way of thinking in chess. At the same time, I feel it is very interesting this is for people who want to blow and show their creativity on every level,” she added.
Chess960, also known as Fischer Random after the late American chess legend Bobby Fischer, differs from the established formats in that the pieces on the backline are arranged randomly, and the layout is made known to players just 15 minutes before the start of a game.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsAfter his underwhelming performance in Weissenhaus, Gukesh has been confirmed for the second event of the inaugural Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Paris in April. The world champion, though, will not be the only Indian in action, with Arjun Erigaisi and Tata Steel Chess 2025 winner R Praggnanandhaa also set to participate.
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