Devastated D Gukesh resigns after Caruana’s checkmate prediction

D Gukesh suffered a loss to Fabiano Caruana in the first game of their quarter-final clash at the Weissenhaus leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. Caruana, who handpicked Gukesh after the round-robin stage, defeated the India No. 1 for the second consecutive time. Gukesh had also lost to Magnus Carlsen in the final round of the preliminary stage.

The two will face off again on Monday, and Caruana, the reigning world champion, will aim to bounce back. Gukesh’s vulnerability in non-classical formats resurfaced, as it had in his earlier loss to Carlsen. The game started evenly, but Caruana soon gained momentum, securing the win with a brilliant 40…Rf3.

Gukesh made a critical blunder on move 33 while both players had less than three minutes on the clock. The game concluded with Gukesh staring at the board, realizing that Caruana was on the verge of delivering a checkmate. With no options left, Gukesh resigned. The match had turned into a frantic battle, with both players using a 30-second increment on each move, but no time added after move 40.

After his victory, Caruana explained why he chose Gukesh as his opponent for the quarter-finals, despite Gukesh’s strong form. In an interview with Take Take Take, Caruana said, “I had to pick someone. It could have been a coin flip. Gukesh and Nodirbek are both super strong. Maybe Gukesh is around 2790, and Nodirbek is around 2780. There’s not a huge qualitative difference between them. Gukesh has more experience in World Championship-level moments, but Nodirbek can put more pressure on his opponents.”

Caruana continued, “Sometimes, playing too fast can be dangerous. Gukesh was a bit more unknown to me than Nodirbek. We’ve faced each other more, but I thought Gukesh was the better pick over Nodirbek or Hikaru. In the end, I chose Gukesh.”