Bouncing back superbly after losing in the first round to Iranian-French Grand Master Alireza Firouzja, India's Dommaraju Gukesh beat World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in the second round of the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge in Hamburg, Germany. The 17-year-old from Chennai also defeated reigning world champion Ding Liren of China and Levon Aronian of the USA to cap off a memorable day. (More Chess News)
Gukesh is now placed joint second alongside Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov with three points out of a possible four. Local boy Vincent Keymar is currently the sole leader with 3.5 points in four rounds, while Carlsen stands fifth in the eight-player field.
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The Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge 2024 is an over-the-board Chess960 tournament conceptualised by 59-year-old Hamburg-born entrepreneur and chess fan Jan Henric Buettner, featuring eight of the top players in the world, hand-picked by Carlsen.
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The format includes a rapid round-robin to decide the eight places and then a classical time control knock-out event, commencing with the quarter-finals.
In the rapid format, the players will get 25 minutes each with a 10-second increment, while in the classical section, they will have 90 minutes for 40 moves and then 30 minutes for the entire game with a 30-second increment from move one.
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Gukesh will next take on Fabiano Caruana in the fifth round.
