Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Weissenhaus Day 5 Highlights: Gukesh and Nakamura play out draw; Carlsen stunned by Keymer

Here’s a summary of the results from Day 5 of the Weissenhaus event, with three out of four games ending in a stalemate:

Gukesh and Nakamura also play out a stalemate – their game being the longest of the day at 59 moves. The two players collect half-a-point each after a repetition of moves, with Nakamura offering Gukesh’s king a check in each of the last five moves.

With that, Gukesh remains winless in the Weissenhaus leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, having collected eight draws and four losses in 12 games including three defeats in a row.

In the other semi-final, Fabiano Caruana and Javokhir Sindarov shake hands after the former moves his rook to d1 in his 51st move. Game 2 that will be taking place tomorrow effectively becomes a knockout match and which ever player wins that game advances directly to the final.

Vincent Keymer keeps the German flag flying high in Weissenhaus as he pulls off what could be the biggest victory over his career so far, with world No 1 Magnus Carlsen resigning in 39 moves! Carlsen made a couple of questionable decisions towards the end (35. Rd6 and 37. c6), while Keymer further solidified his position by moving his Queen to a3 in what would be his penultimate move.

We have the first result of the day with the 5th-8th classification match between Alireza Firouzja and Nodirbek Abdusattorov ending in a 43-move stalemate. Here’s what the board looks like at the end of the game:

Vincent Keymer found himself in a favourable position, as per the Stockfish engine, after Magnus Carlsen decided to move his pawn forward to g4 in his 32nd over. The German GM, however, negated that advantage by retreating his queen by one square to c3 in his turn. Meanwhile, time’s quickly running out for both players, especially for Keymer who has a minute left on the clock.

Both D Gukesh and Hikaru Nakamura have less than 10 minutes left on the clock, though the former enjoys a slight lead over the American GM who sits one spot ahead of him in the world rankings at second. Gukesh is aiming to close in on Nakamura’s king with his rook but has a corresponding piece standing in the way.

Nakamura appeared to have had a slight advantage over Gukesh after 20 moves, but the latter is back on level terms after the Stockfish engine likes his 21st move – in which he gallops his knight towards e7 from d5 to capture his opponent’s pawn.

Last five moves:

21. e4 Nxe7

22. Rh5 Ng8

23. Bg5 Kc6

24. d4 Nc4

25. e5 dxe5

The Stockfish engine is leaning slightly in favour of American GM Hikaru Nakamura in his classification match against Gukesh despite a questionable 20th move (Rh1).

Here are the moves played so far in Gukesh vs Nakamura:

1. g4 Nb6

2. f4 f5

3. gxf5 Rxf5

4. c3 Rf8

5. f5 g6

6. Nb3 Bf7

7. Bh4 gxf5

8. Qxg8 Bxg8

9. Bxf5 Ng6

10. Bg5 c5

11. Ng3 Bxg3

12. hxg3 Be6

13. g4 Ne5

14. Kc2 Rg8

15. Bh4 Bxf5+

16. gxf5 d6

17. f6 Kd7

18. fxe7 Nd5

19. Rf5 Rg7

20. Rh1 b6

D Gukesh is on the offensive against Hikaru Nakamura, offering the American GM a check in his 15th move after moving his bishop to f5, capturing his opponent’s corrensponding piece in the process. How will the world No 2 respond to this situation?

In the other 5th-8th classification face-off between Alireza Firouzja and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the former appears to have made a major error by moving his queen to f7 in his 10th move.

Carlsen opts to castle in his fourth move in his semi-final meeting with Vincent Keymer. Here’s what the board looks like after four moves:

The 5th-8th classification meeting between D Gukesh and Hikaru Nakamura is underway in Weissenhaus, with the Indian playing with black pieces. Nakamura makes a pawn capture in the third move, and Gukesh responds by capturing his opponent’s piece at f5 with his rook.

Here’s what the board looks like after the American GM’s fifth move:

Caruana opts for f3 opening against Sindarov in his semi-final. Sindarov went with f5 in his defence followed by c4 from Caruna. Sindarov’s last move has been Nb6.

Keymer starts with g4 in the semi-finals followed by Carlsen opting for Ng6. Carlsen is playing with black pieces. In the below image, you can see the back rank randomised positions.

With his hopes of winning the Weissenhaus leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour over, D Gukesh’s focus will now shift to finishing fifth in the tournament. For that to happen, he must first go past world No 2 Hikaru Nakamura before squaring off against the winner of the other classification match – between Alireza Firouzja and Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

The winner of these two games will then face off for the fifth spot.

Here are the lineups for the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour Weissenhaus semi-finals:

— Magnus Carlsen vs Vincent Keymer

— Fabiano Caruana vs Javokhir Sindarov

Though D Gukesh’s campaign in Weissenhaus came to an end with back-to-back defeats against Fabiano Caruana in the quarter-finals, he won’t be flying back to India just yet.

The 5th-8th classification matches will be happening at the same time as the semi-finals, and Gukesh will be up against world No 2 Hikaru Nakamura, against whom he had played out a draw earlier in Round-Robin leg of the tournament.

Day 1

Round 1: Drew against Nodirbek Abdusattorov

Round 2: Lost to Alireza Firouzja

Round 3: Drew against Levon Aronian

Round 4: Drew against Javokhir Sindarov

Round 5: Drew against Hikaru Nakamura

Day 2

Round 6: Drew against Fabiano Caruana

Round 7: Drew against Vincent Keymer

Round 8: Drew against Vladimir Fedoseev

Round 9: Lost to Magnus Carlsen.

Day 3

Quarter-final, Game 1: Lost to Fabiano Caruana

Day 4

Quarter-final, Game 2: Lost to Fabiano Caruana

Gukesh’s campaign at the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour event in Weissenhaus certainly was his poorest in recent memory, with the recently-crowned world champion failing to register a single win throughout the event, even against Vladimir Fedoseev and Levon Aronian, who finished at the bottom of the 10-player standings and failed to advance to the knockouts.

Gukesh then lost both games of the quarter-final against Fabiano Caruana, resigning in 40 and 18 moves respectively.

With Gukesh Dommaraju’s campaign ending on a disappointing note, the spotlight now shifts to his conquerer Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen, who face Javokhir Sindarov and Vincent Keymer respectively in the semi-finals.

Stay tuned for more updates.