Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge: Gukesh beats Carlsen, Aronian and Ding to start first day on high

After losing the first round to Frenchmen Alireza Firouzja, India GM D. Gukesh bounced back quickly to beat 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 then went on to beat USA’s Levon Aronian in the third round and the reining world champion China’s Ding Liren in the fourth round to sit joint second alongside Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov with 3.0/4.

Local lad Vincent Keymar is the sole leader with 3.5 points in four rounds, while Carlsen stands fifth in the eight-player field.

The 2024 Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge is an over-the-board Chess960 tournament with some of the top players in the world, selected by Carlsen.

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The format is an interesting mix with a rapid round-robin to decide the eight places and then a Classical time control know-out event starting with the Quarterfinals.

In rapid format, the players will get 25 minutes each with a 10-second increment, while in the classical segment, they will have 90 minutes for 40 moves and then 30 minutes for the entire game with a 30-second increment from move one.

Gukesh will face Fabiano Caruana in the fifth round on Saturday.