 "Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025: Gukesh to take on Caruana as quarter-final match-ups for Weissenhaus leg revealed")
World champion Dommaraju Gukesh qualified for the knockout stages of the Weissenhaus leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour on Saturday, Gukesh, who lost to world number one Magnus Carlsen in round nine, ended the preliminary stage winless and finished in eighth place with 3.5 points .
The Indian secured as many as seven draws and lost two games, and will take on American grandmaster Fabiano Caruana in the quarter-finals. Other players who qualified for the quarter-finals are Alireza Firouzja, Javokhir Sindarov, Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Vincent Keymer and Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
How are the draws for the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam quarter-finals determined?
In the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, the players who finish in the top four of the standings in each leg gets to choose their opponent, who will be from the bottom four of the standings. For example, Alireza Firouzja, who finished the preliminary stage in first place, chose sixth-placed Vincent Keymer as his quarter-final opponent.
Fabiano Caruana: "I'll play the World Champion!"
— chess24 (@chess24com) February 8, 2025
It's Gukesh-Caruana in tomorrow's #FreestyleChess Quarterfinals pic.twitter.com/5jSa9q1e28
World No 3 Hikaru Nakamura was expected to play Magnus Carlsen in the quarter-finals, but in a surprising move, Javokhir Sindarov, who finished in second place, picked Nakamura as his quarter-final opponent. Fabiano Caruana finished third and picked D Gukesh as his opponent, with the American confirming that he will play with black pieces against the Indian. This left Magnus Carlsen with the lone option of taking on Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the last eight.
Vladimir Fedoseev and Levon Aronian, who finished outside the top eight, have been knocked out of the tournament but will lock horns against each other in the ninth place playoff.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIn the knockout stages, the two-game matches will be played in a 90-minute classical format with 30-second increment moves after that. Should the game end in a tie, two 10+10 matches are played and if the scores are still tied, two 5+2 games are played. Should the scores be still tied, a one-off Armageddon game will take place and the winner will be decided through that. The quarter-finals will take place on Sunday and Monday.
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