With his wins against reigning world champion Ding Liren and numero uno Magnus Carlsen, India's 17-year-old Grand Master Dommaraju Gukesh has jumped to the joint second spot after four rounds of the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge 2024
Bouncing back superbly after losing in the first round to Iranian-French Grand Master Alireza Firouzja, India's Dommaraju Gukesh beat World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in the second round of the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge in Hamburg, Germany. The 17-year-old from Chennai also defeated reigning world champion Ding Liren of China and Levon Aronian of the USA to cap off a memorable day. (More Chess News)
Gukesh is now placed joint second alongside Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov with three points out of a possible four. Local boy Vincent Keymar is currently the sole leader with 3.5 points in four rounds, while Carlsen stands fifth in the eight-player field.
The Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge 2024 is an over-the-board Chess960 tournament conceptualised by 59-year-old Hamburg-born entrepreneur and chess fan Jan Henric Buettner, featuring eight of the top players in the world, hand-picked by Carlsen.
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The format includes a rapid round-robin to decide the eight places and then a classical time control knock-out event, commencing with the quarter-finals.
In the rapid format, the players will get 25 minutes each with a 10-second increment, while in the classical section, they will have 90 minutes for 40 moves and then 30 minutes for the entire game with a 30-second increment from move one.
Gukesh will next take on Fabiano Caruana in the fifth round.