Gukesh’s optimistic angle lauded as world champion returns to Freestyle Chess Tour: ‘He simply accepted unhealthy outcomes’

Chess world champion D Gukesh had a winless run on the first leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 in Weissenhaus however that hasn’t dampened his spirits and the 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster is
again in Paris for the second leg. The Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 begins on Monday (7 April) with 12 prime chess gamers competing for the winner’s crown.

Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour Paris: Day 1 LIVE Weblog

The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour has taken the game by storm, making a battle between the organisers, together with world No.1 Magnus Carlsen, and the Worldwide Chess Federation, FIDE. Nonetheless, the storm has now calmed down and the main target is firmly on the video games.

Gukesh had a trial by fireplace within the first leg
as he completed eighth after failing to win a single sport. He certified for the knockouts by advantage of being eighth within the standings after the round-robin section however didn’t win a single match within the match.

It needs to be famous that Gukesh’s most favoured format is Classical chess which helped him turn out to be the
youngest ever world chess champion on the age of 18 final 12 months. He’s nonetheless to depart a mark in different codecs together with Fast, Blitz and Freestyle chess.

His latest struggles, nevertheless, didn’t cease him from giving it one other strive. Whereas Alireza Firouzja and
Hans Niemann dropped out of the Paris leg on the final minute, Gukesh will as soon as once more be seen competing on the Tour.

Freestyle Chess Tour co-founder praises Gukesh’s angle

The co-founder of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour and businessman Jan Henric Buettner is impressed with Gukesh’s optimistic angle and willingness to study from failures. Whereas talking to the Instances of India, Buettner stated he was at all times assured Gukesh would return to the Paris leg.

“Gukesh is a humble, cool, and sort particular person. He simply accepted the unhealthy outcomes. He didn’t do fairly properly, however there was by no means a query of whether or not he’d take part within the subsequent leg. He merely stated, ‘I’ll do higher subsequent time,’” Buettner stated.

“Anyway, we talked about this right here in Paris. It was a brief dialog (with Gukesh). He was very calm and accepted the scenario. I believe that’s nice,” Buettner added.

The Paris leg, nevertheless, won’t be straightforward for Gukesh as he faces among the finest gamers on the planet and India. Apart from Carlsen and Gukesh, the roster contains Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Vincent Keymer, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Richard Rapport, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa and Vidith Gujrathi.

“Now we have an unimaginable roster of 12 gamers… Simply serious about it. 4 gamers gained’t make it to the quarterfinals. And actually, you possibly can attempt to guess who these 4 could be, however it’s powerful. It’s loopy to consider. Out of these 12, who would you even decide?” Buettner stated.

Whatever the competitors, Gukesh will hope to have a greater outing in Paris than in Weissenhaus.