Two classes that D Gukesh could have discovered from winless Freestyle Chess Tour marketing campaign in Weissenhaus

Gukesh Dommaraju had a forgettable run within the opening occasion of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Weissenhaus, Germany. Two months after being topped the youngest world champion in Singapore and fewer than two weeks after almost profitable the Tata Metal Chess event, the 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster didn’t win a single sport within the Chess960 format.

Gukesh ended up ending Eighth out of 10 gamers on the Weissenhaus Personal Nature Luxurious Resort, getting knocked out within the quarter-finals earlier than dropping each of his Fifth-Eighth classification matches. Out of the 17 video games that he performed in fast in addition to Classical time controls, the Chennai lad drew 11 and misplaced six.

Gukesh could have a possibility to battle again within the second occasion of the profitable tour in Paris, the place compatriots
Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa – who beat him to the Tata Metal Chess title – may even be in motion.

Nonetheless, earlier than we flip our consideration to the Paris leg, we check out two important classes that Gukesh could have learnt on the seaside resort situated in Germany’s Baltic coast to the north:

Chess960 instinct

American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura had not too long ago defined that
Gukesh’s “largest weak spot” was the his instinct wasn’t that nice particularly when low on time, and struggles by way of calcutations.

“I’d say most likely the largest weak spot Gukesh at present has is that when he will get low on time, I don’t suppose his instinct is that nice, and he merely couldn’t work by way of the calculations,” Nakamura, winner of the 2022 World Fischer Random Championship, informed Chess.com.

Gukesh’s coach Grzegorz Gajewski, nonetheless,
got here to his defence, specifying that it was the “Chess960 instinct” that Gukesh wanted to work on and never on his Classical instinct as he has confirmed himself to be a profitable machine in that format not too long ago.

“In 960, calculation may be very deceptive as a result of it’s a must to watch out about which strikes you might be calculating.

“So, sure, he wants to enhance his instinct. however by instinct I imply Chess960 instinct. As a result of many strikes that intuitively appear effective in classical chess are simply pure errors in 960,” the Polish Grandmaster had mentioned in a dwell stream performed by ChessBase India.

Studying from different gamers

A typical sight on the Freestyle Chess Tour occasion in Weissenhaus was gamers gathering round a board discussing doable openings after the association of items on the board was made identified simply quarter-hour earlier than a sport. Among the many gamers who was regularly seen discussing techniques with legends of the sport resembling Magnus Carlsen was German GM Vincent Keymer.

Keymer would go on to drag off a shocking victory over Carlsen within the semi-finals earlier than defeating Fabiano Caruana within the closing to win the $200,000 money prize.

even tremendous GMs have to begin from scratch with new freestyle chess positions! 🔥 #FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/NezWskv0bH

— Chess.com (@chesscom) February 10, 2025

Gukesh, however, was seen sitting by a board all by himself, considering his strikes. Given he isn’t as used to the unpredictable format as he’s in relation to Classical chess, possibly attending these brainstorming periods might need helped.

“I believe it will probably solely be to your drawback for those who don’t analyze collectively. I don’t know why Gukesh doesn’t analyze with Fabiano. To me, that’s simply insane. Whether or not I’m analyzing with Fabiano, or even when I’m not, I have a look at his sport, and I simply attempt to comply with what he does. You recognize, I simply imagine in Fabiano, so it’s a lot simpler if you are able to do that,” Nakamura, who completed fifth in Weissenhaus, added.