Freestyle Chess Tour: Struggling Gukesh loses to Nakamura; Carlsen eliminated by Keymer

Gukesh Dommaraju will be fighting for the seventh spot in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour’s opening event in Weissenhaus after suffering a 1.5-2.5 defeat against Hikaru Nakamura in their 5th-8th classification match on Wednesday. The defeat at the hands of the world No 2 extended Gukesh’s winless run at the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort after six days of competition, with the reigning Classical world champion having drawn 10 games and lost five.

Gukesh had done well to hold Nakamura to a 59-move draw while playing with black pieces in Game 1 on Tuesday. Game 2 on Wednesday would also end in a stalemate while lasting seven moves longer, with Gukesh having his bishop on the board in addition to his king, compared to just one piece for the Japanese-American GM.

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With both Classical games ending in a draw, the Gukesh vs Nakamura match went into rapid tie breaks that had a time control of 10 minutes with 10-second increments for each move. The first of the two rapid games turned out to be quite thrilling an affair with neither player willing to concede an inch, resulting in a 103-move draw.

Hikaru Nakamura finishes off clinically, taking down the World Champion D Gukesh with the Black pieces in the second tiebreak game. @GMHikaru wins the 5th-8th match against Gukesh! #FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/zh1ugMCx2M

— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) February 12, 2025

Gukesh then found himself leading the second rapid game but a considerable margin, as per the evaluation bar, at one point, until a series of bad moves including a couple of blunders (16. Qg4 and 21. Rx4) turned the tide in his opponent’s favour. Nakamura also capitalised on the situation with some aggression, offering Gukesh’s king a check in back-to-back moves with his rook (22. Rd1+) and queen (23. Qd2+), and it wasn’t long before the Indian Grandmaster raised the white flag.

Caruana beats Sindarov in Armageddon decider as Carlsen bows out

Nakamura will now face Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who defeated Alireza Firouzja in the other classification match for the fifth place. Gukesh, meanwhile, will have to contend himself with having to fight for the seventh spot with Firouzja, whom he had lost to on the opening day of the event.

Day 6 of the Weissenhaus event also witnessed Vincent Keymer complete his fairytale triumph over world No 1 and Freestyle Chess co-founder Magnus Carlsen with a draw in Game 2 of their semi-final clash. Carlsen had lost Game 1 on Tuesday, having resigned in 39 moves.

Wednesday also witnessed the first instance of a match being decided in an Armageddon game, in which the player playing with black pieces wins if the game ends in a draw and the player with white pieces gets extra time on the clock. It happened in the other semi-final clash, in which Fabiano Caruana and Javokhir Sindarov drew both of their rapid and blitz tie-breakers in addition to the second Classical game on Wednesday.

Caruana who had finished in the joint-lead with Sindarov at the end of the first day’s play, will face local favourite Keymer for the Weissenhaus title. Sindarov, a last minute inclusion in the tournament as a replacement for Viswanathan Anand, will be up against Carlsen in the third-place playoff.