Freestyle Chess Weissenhaus Standings: Gukesh tied on 2 factors with Carlsen, Nakamura; Sindarov in joint-lead

Gukesh Dommaraju was off to a less-than-ideal begin on Day 1 of the opening Freestyle Chess Grand Slam 2025 event on Friday, failing to win a single sport all through the day. Reigning world champion Gukesh, who had completed runner-up at Tata Metal Chess after shedding the blitz tie-breaks towards R Praggnanandhaa, collected 4 attracts together with a defeat on the Weissenhaus Non-public Nature Luxurious resort on Friday.

After beginning his marketing campaign with a 96-move draw towards Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who had completed third at Tata Metal Chess behind the 2 Indians, Gukesh suffered his solely defeat of the day towards Alireza Firouzja, getting checkmated in 27 strikes.

As It Occurred |
Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025, Weissenhaus Day 1

The 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster, at the moment ranked third on the planet, would then acquire a hat-trick of attracts towards Levon Aronian, Javokhir Sindarov and Hikaru Nakamura respectively regardless of discovering himself in a precarious scenario in a few these video games.

It wasn’t a really perfect day for Magnus Carlsen or Nakamura both, the previous having created the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour and the Freestyle Chess Gamers Membership together with German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner. Carlsen started the day with a victory over Nakamura within the largest match of the day, and would bounce again in fashion towards Vincent Keymer after defeat towards Fabiano Caruana.

The world No 1, a five-time world champion who’s broadly thought to be one of many biggest chess gamers ever, would then undergo back-to-back losses towards Vladimir Fedoseev and Sindarov to search out himself tied on two factors with Gukesh, Nakamura and Keymer.

Sindarov, who’s that includes within the event as a substitute for Viswanathan Anand after the latter withdrew from the occasion, outshone a number of the largest names within the sport in the present day to occupy the highest spot with world No 4 Caruana on 4.5 factors – some extent forward of the third-placed Firouzja.

Freestyle Chess Grand Slam 2025, Weissenhaus Day 1 Standings

1. Fabiano Caruana – 4.5/5

2. Javokhir Sindarov – 4.5/5

3. Alireza Firouzja – 3.5/5

4. Nodirbek Abdusattorov – 2.5/5

5. Magnus Carlsen – 2/5

6. D Gukesh – 2/5

7. Hikaru Nakamura – 2/5

8. Vincent Keymer – 2/5

9. Vladimir Fedoseev – 1/5

10. Levon Aronian – 1/5

The remaining 4 rounds of the Spherical-Robin stage will happen on Saturday, with the spotlight being Gukesh’s showdown towards Carlsen within the ninth and last spherical.

Out of the ten gamers collaborating within the Spherical-Robin stage, the highest eight will progress to the quarter-finals that happen on Sunday and Monday. The semi-finals happen on Tuesday and Wednesday whereas the finals are scheduled to happen on Thursday and Friday.