World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen reflects on D Gukesh's gameplay at the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, shedding light on the dynamics of their high-stakes encounter and the challenges of top-level chess.

Having lost the first game with white pieces, World champion D Gukesh did not last long against the American Grandmaster in a must-win tie with Caruana finishing the contest in a mere 18 moves.

D Gukesh resigned in 40 moves in Game 1 of his quarter-final meeting with Fabiano Caruana despite playing with white pieces, the defeat extending his winless run at the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour event in Weissenhaus as a result.

World Champion D Gukesh faced a setback against USA's Fabiano Caruana in the Freestyle Grand Slam chess quarterfinals in Hamburg, failing to capitaliz

World Champion D Gukesh qualified for the knockout stage in the first event of the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour, despite losing to the world’s highest-rated player, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, in the ninth and final round of the qualifiers.

Fabiano Caruana said that the reason why he picked D Gukesh as his quarter-final opponent for the Weissenhaus leg of the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour was due to the latter’s experience of playing ‘high stakes games’.

While Gukesh is out of the quarterfinal, his time in Weissenhaus still continues, as he will battle for the fifth to eighth ranking spots, playing the loser of the Hikaru Nakamura vs Jakovhir Sindarov quarterfinal tie.

Gukesh lost the second leg on Monday, sealing his exit from the tournament. Gukesh will now play for the 5th-8th place Playoff.