Gukesh resigns in 18 moves against Caruana in Freestyle Chess quarters

The reigning world champion lost the must-win Game 2 of the last eight on Monday to continue his winless run in Weissenhaus

Bengaluru: Reigning world champion D Gukesh’s winless run continued in the year’s first event of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Weissenhaus, Germany. After losing to world No.2 Fabiano Caruana in the first game of the quarterfinals (chess 960 classical format) on Sunday, the 18-year-old resigned in 18 moves in a must-win second game on Monday. Gukesh will now fight for a 5th-8th place classification spot while the American advanced to the semi-finals.

Singapore: India's D Gukesh during the 13th game of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2024, in Singapore, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh tried his best but could not break past a resilient defending champion Ding Liren of China and had to settle for a draw after 68 moves in the 13th and penultimate game of the World Chess championship here on Wednesday. (FIDE/Eric Rosen via PTI Photo) (PTI12_11_2024_000423A) (PTI)

Playing with the Black pieces on Monday, Gukesh needed a win to force tie-breaks against the 2018 World Championship challenger, but instead Game 2 of the quarterfinals turned out to be brief. Down a pawn, with his King in plain sight and with very little counterplay, the Indian decided to resign and bow out of the race for the semis. Gukesh had lost to Magnus Carlsen and Alireza Firouzja in the rapid round robin section of the tournament earlier and had just about scraped through to the quarterfinals in eighth spot.

During Game 1 of his quarterfinal against Caruana, Gukesh had left commentators stumped with his unusually calm heart rate – 61, picked up by the sensors. The game looked like it could swing either way with both players in time trouble. In what was a complicated game which Caruana believed he could have “definitely lost”, the American showed great attacking instincts to take a full point. Gukesh’s early resignation in Game 2, Caruana said, might well have had something to do with Sunday’s loss. “It really came down to yesterday. He probably could have posed more problems for me. He tried to sacrifice a pawn and create imbalances…but it just didn’t work out and his compensation completely fizzled out where he was just in a hopeless situation early on. He didn’t want to prolong the torture which I understand and his chances of winning the game were approximately zero,” Caruana said.

Earlier, Caruana by virtue of being among the top players in the rapid section, got to pick his opponent for the quarterfinals. He chose Gukesh, a decision that appears to have paid off.

“Well, the thing is I have to pick someone, I could flip a coin, right?” Caruana said when asked. “But they’re both super strong players, I mean, maybe Gukesh is around 2790, maybe Nodirbek Abdusattorov is around 2780. Of course, Gukesh has more experience in terms of playing and winning the World Championship and played more high stakes moments. I think for me Gukesh was a bit more of an unknown than Abdusattorov in some ways.”