After a setback in the first round against French player Alireza Firouzja, Indian Grandmaster D. Gukesh swiftly rebounded by defeating World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in the second round of the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge in Hamburg, Germany, on Friday.
Gukesh’s momentum continued as he secured victories against USA’s Levon Aronian in the third round and reigning world champion China’s Ding Liren in the fourth round, positioning himself joint second with Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov with a score of 3.0/4.
Meanwhile, local player Vincent Keymar leads the tournament with 3.5 points after four rounds, while Carlsen occupies the fifth position in the eight-player field.
The 2024 Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge features an over-the-board Chess960 format with elite players selected by Carlsen himself. The tournament structure comprises a rapid round-robin phase to determine the top eight contenders, followed by a Classical time control knockout event starting from the Quarterfinals.
In the rapid format, players are allotted 25 minutes each with a 10-second increment, while the classical segment grants 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and 30 minutes for the remaining game, with a 30-second increment from move one.
Gukesh is set to face Fabiano Caruana in the fifth round scheduled for Saturday.
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