Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Highlights: Caruana defeats Gukesh in Game 1 of quarters; Carlsen and Keymer also win

Here are the results from Game 1 of the quarter-finals that took place at the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort today:

— Fabiano Caruana defeats D Gukesh

— Magnus Carlsen defeats Nodirbek Abdusattorov

— Vincent Keymer defeats Alireza Firouzja

— Hikaru Nakamura vs Javokhir Sindarov ends in a draw

We finally have a draw today after three games end in a decisive result, with Sindarov and Nakamura playing out a 60-move draw. Both players had three pieces left with Nakamura having a knight and a pawn as compared to two pawns for his opponent. Sindarov, however, initiated a repetition of moves which his more experienced opponent was happy to accept.

D Gukesh’s underwhelming run continues in the Weissenhaus leg of the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour as he resigns in 40 moves in Game 1 of the quarter-final clash against Fabiano Caruana!

The Italian-American GM had Gukesh’s King cornered with his pawn at f2, which he would have used to bring his queen back on the board, and his rook.

Gukesh is on the backfoot since his blunder in the 25th move, with Caruana giving him a check with his rook in the 30th move and capturing his opponent’s corresponding piece right after after the Indian is forced to move his King to c2.

After 38 moves, the eval bar is now leaving heavily in favour of Caruana in what has been a complete turnaround.

We have something of an upset in one of the boards with Alireza Firouzja, who had finished on top of the standings at the end of the Round Robin stage, losing to Vincent Keymer in 27 moves despite playing with white pieces. So that’s two games done today, and it appears Gukesh vs Caruana is on the verge of reaching a conclusion as well!

D Gukesh was in a winning position against Fabiano Caruana, but throws away the advantage by initiating a queen exchange on c4, with the Italian-American promptly capturing Gukesh’s most powerful piece with his knight. Time’s running out for both players in the meantime.

Meanwhile, Armenian-American GM Levon Aronian collects his first victory in the Weissenhaus event of the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, defeating Vladimir Fedoseev in 36 moves in Game 1 of the ninth-place playoff. Fedoseev and Aronian had finished ninth and 10th respectively with the latter having collected just three draws in nine rounds.

Fedoseev, however, will have the opportunity to fight back in Game 2 on Monday.

Both D Gukesh and Fabiano Caruana have around six minutes left on the clock, but its the Indian Grandmaster who has a slight advantage over his opponent after 22 moves despite a glaring error (Nb3) in his 21st move that cancelled out a much better one (19. fxg7).

Will the two players enter blitz mode now with just minutes left in Game 1?

A blunder by Fabiano Caruana late in the game had allowed D Gukesh to escape witih a draw in their Round 6 clash on Saturday, and the Italian-American GM appears to have made another of those mistakes in Game 1 of the quarter-finals by moving his dark-squared bishop three squares to b6 in response to Gukesh’s g5, which Stockfish thinks isn’t the best move either.

In the Alirezja Firouzja vs Vincent Keymer showdown, the German GM continues to hold an advantage over the Iranian-French GM who had finished at the top of the standings at the end of the Round-Robin stage. Firouzja, meanwhile, has less than nine minutes left on the clock and has played just 13 moves so far.

D Gukesh is known for going into a meditative state during games, and was seen doing so more often than not during the World Championship showdown against Ding Liren, and has been taking such breaks in Game 1 of the quarter-finals as well.

Fabiano Caruana, meanwhile, has been leaving his seat a few times today and once again heads off with a little over 20 minutes left on the clock. As for the game itself, it still is in the balance, and could be heading towards a stalemate – which will be Gukesh’s eighth in Weissenhaus.

And the remaining quarter-final games are moving along steadily, world No 1 Magnus Carlsen continues his winning run with a dominant victory over Uzbekistani GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov in Game 1 of the quarter-finals! And he does so in just 23 moves, with Nodirbek raising the white flag despite having his queen as well as a rook and both knights on the board!

In the Carlsen-Nodirbek quarter-final, the world No 1 finds himself in a dominant position after 21 moves with the Stockfish engine heavily leaning in his favour (3.9) after his 22nd move (Qb6). Carlsen was off to a poor start on Day 1, losing three games out of five including two in a row, but bounced back with two wins and a draw on Saturday, including a victory over Gukesh.

He’s on the verge of going 1-0 up against Nodirbek at the moment.

The quarter-final meeting between Gukesh and Caruana has witnessed 12 moves so far, and is only slightly faster than Firouzja vs Keymer – which has witnessed 10. Maybe the players are still getting used to the change in format after the rapid games that had a 10-minute time control with 10-second increments.

Analysing Gukesh’s position, the Stockfish engine gives him a slight (0.5) advantage:

While the quarter-final battles between Gukesh and Caruana and Sindarov and Nakamura are fairly balanced at the moment, it’s advantage Carlsen and Keymer in their respective quarter-final clashes against Nodirbek and Firouzja respectively.

Meanwhile in Sindarov vs Nakamura, the Stockfish engine isn’t quite happy with the Uzbekistani’s decision to advance his pawn to f5 in his 11th move, but appreciates Nakamura’s response (d5).

After playing out moves fairly similar to those in Gukesh vs Caruana, German Grandmaster Keymer opts for a castle in his sixth move. Both players also move their queens around with Firouzja also advancing his knight to e3 to create plenty of space on the right side of his board.

Players across all boards are taking plenty of breaks during the quarter-final stage with the games now being played in the Classical format that is a lot more spread out compared to the Rapid format which the preliminaries had been played in.

The Stockfish engine, meanwhile, likes his latest move – in which he advances his knight to e3, right next to Caruana’s knight.

Meanwhile the Sindarov vs Nakamura quarter-final battle also witnesses an f4-Nb6 opening with the former playing with white pieces, and later opts for a pawn-capture that is been witnessed in the other games as well (3. fxe4, 4. Rxe4).

The opening of the Firouzja/Keymer quarter-final mirrors that of Gukesh vs Caruana. Firouzja, playing with white pieces, goes for an f4 opening and local favourite Keymer responds with Nb6. Interestingly, Keymer opts for a pawn capture which is exactly the same as Caruana (3. fxe4), while Firouzja’s response is exactly that of Gukesh (4. Rxe4).

Meanwhile in the Carlsen vs Nodirbek quarter-final clash, the world No 1 also opts to start with an f4 opening while playing with white pieces. The game then witnesses some ambitious moves early in the game with both players using their bishops located at one end of the board to capture a pawn at the other end in the third and fourth moves.

Carlsen also captures Nodirbek’s pawn with his queen in his sixth move.

Gukesh decides to advance his knight in response to a similar move from Caruana. The Italian-American GM, meanwhile, captures Gukesh’s pawn on e4, and the Indian retaliates by advancing his rook, which is placed on the ‘E’ file in this random arrangement.

D Gukesh is playing with white pieces, and opts for an f4 opening, with Fabiano Caruana developing it into an Alekhine’s Defense.

The quarter-finals are underway at the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort in Germany’s Baltic coast! Can Gukesh come back stronger in a format that he is a lot more comfortable in?

Here’s how D Gukesh has fared so far in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour Weissenhaus event so far:

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.

In the dream showdown between world champion D Gukesh and world No 1 Magnus Carlsen, the former was putting up a decent fight until a blunder in the 42nd move, which led to things unravelling quickly around him, resulting in a resignation just four moves later.

It was reminiscent of a recent game involving Gukesh – the decisive 14th and final round of the FIDE World Championship against Ding Liren in Singapore, in which the Chinese GM made a similar mistake that cost him the world title. ( **READ MORE** )

Here’s what world No 1 and Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour co-founder Magnus Carlsen said after defeating D Gukesh in 46 moves in the final round of the Round-Robin stage on Saturday:

“I think it was later, he could have for instance exchanged rooks at some point which is just a dead draw at a couple of points and it’s a thing we talked about earlier as well, he wasn’t really playing by hand, he was trying to do a little bit too much.”

“I think honestly there was not a single point in the game where it was realistic that he could play for a win…”

After the Round Robin matches were played with a time control of 10 minutes with a 10-second increment for each move, the knockouts that get underway on Sunday will be played in the Classical format wherein both players will be given 90 minutes with a 30-second increment for each move.

Each knockout match comprises two games played in this format. And if scores are tied after two games, two 10+10 matches will be played, following which there will be two 5+2 games if the winner’s still not decided.

The final tie-breaker will be played in the form of a a one-off Armageddon game.

The draws for the quarter-finals were decided by the players who finished in the top-four at the end of the round-robin stage, with Alireza Firouzja and Javokhir Sindarov going first after finishing joint-leaders with 6.5 points each.

Here’s a clip of Fabiano Caruana picking D Gukesh as he quarter-final opponent:

Fabiano Caruana: "I'll play the World Champion!"

It's Gukesh-Caruana in tomorrow's #FreestyleChess Quarterfinals pic.twitter.com/5jSa9q1e28

— chess24 (@chess24com) February 8, 2025

Here are the match-ups for the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 Weissenhaus quarter-finals:

— D Gukesh vs Fabiano Caruana

— Alireza Firouzja vs Vincent Keymer

— Javokhir Sindarov vs Hikaru Nakamura

— Magnus Carlsen vs Nodirbek Abdusattorov

With the conclusion of the Round Robin stage on Saturday, the quarter-finals get underway today with world champion D Gukesh taking on Fabiano Caruana.

Stay tuned for more updates!