Gukesh beats Carlsen; joint second after day one of Freestyle Chess

Grandmaster D Gukesh threw one salvo after another to beat world No 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway Levon Aronian of Armenia and eventually reigning world champion Ding Liren of China on the first day of the Weissenhaus Chess Challenge that got underway hereAfter a rather sedate start that cost him a full point in the opener against Alireza Firouza of France Gukesh was in full swing and ended the day with three points in all out of a possible four and is in joint second place in the rapid section behind Vincent Keymer of Germany who notched up 35 pointsAlso Read ICC T20 World Cup 2024 Spinners will play key role feels South African spinner Keshav MaharajNodirbek Abdusattarov also matched Gukesh on points after remaining unbeaten on the opening day while the trio of biggies Carlsen Firouza and Fabiano Caruana of the United States are in joint fourth spot with two points apiece in the 200000 prizemoney tournament Levon Aronian of the United States with a lone draw is sole seventh while surprisingly Ding Liren is at the bottom after losing all four gamesThe rapid format has been designed to pick up the pairings for the knockout stage between the same eight players Whoever finishes first will play against the person finishing last as is the norm in the knockoutsFor Gukesh the highlight of the day was his victory over Carlsen The middle games arising out of chess 960 or freestyle chess are always almost unknown and showcasing his skills Gukesh took his chances in a complicated endgame Carlsen was not able to concentrate at his best as he made a few inaccuracies to let Gukesh come on top and a further error cost the world number one a piece The rest was childs playAlso Read He was labelled as a whiteball cricketer without asking him Shastri on Bumrahs Test careerIn the third round Gukesh was tested by Aronians Bishop sacrifice as early as on move eight but ignoring the same Gukesh went for his counterplay in the centreAronian lost a piece eventually and it was all over in just 39 moves Against Ding Liren Gukesh was at his technical best as he unleashed a rook sacrifice for a minor piece early and Liren found his position to be crumbling soon afterwards In the complications that ensued Liren was outdone by Gukeshs precise calculation The game lasted 37 movesEarlier in the first game of the day Firouza got off to a flier defeating Gukesh but could not keep the same momentum in the remaining gamesWith three rounds to come in the rapid it remains to be seen who will play whom in the quarterfinals Interestingly the quarters semis and finale will be played under standard time control rules with 90 minutes to each player for forty moves and 30 minutes to finish the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move from move oneAll rounds of the knockout stage will have two standard games and in case of a tied result games of shorter duration will be played to decide the winnerResultsRound 1 D Gukesh Ind lost to Alireza Firouza Fra Nodirbek Abdusattarov Uzb drew with Levon Aronian Arm Magnus Carlsen Nor drew with Vincent Keymer Ger Ding Liren Chn lost to Fabiano Caruana USARound 2 Gukesh beat Carlsen Abdusattarov beat Liren Firouza drew with Caruana Keymer beat AronianRound 3 Aronian lost to Gukesh Liren lost to Keymer Carlsen drew with Firouza Caruana drew with AbdusattarovRound 4 Gukesh beat Liren Carlsen beat Aronian Firouza lost to Abdusattarov Keymer beat CaruanaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever