Wangels: India’s Grandmaster D Gukesh had to settle for sixth place after losing the last three rounds in the rapid play-off of the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Challenge here.
Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattarov dominated the rapid event which was primarily used to determine the pairings for the knockout stage.
The young Uzbek finished with an impressive 5.5 points out of a possible seven, half a point ahead of Germany’s Vincent Keimer.
Fabiano finished seventh ahead of American Levon Aronian and struggling defending world champion Ding Liren, who had just one draw and six losses in the event.
Gukesh was just having a bad day at the office. The day began with a tough start against Caruana, who missed no move, dropping a rook to minor pieces before destroying the black kings with a right attack.
Against Abdusattarov, Gukesh had to make some tough choices in a complex middle game and for once, the Indian was on the wrong side while against Keymar it was all over in just 22 moves.
With fast-paced games, Gukesh will now face Caruana in the quarterfinals to be played under classical time control. It is a well-known fact that classical chess is the strength of Indians and they can prove to be a tough challenge for elite opponents.
Depending on the win, Abdusattarov will have out-of-form Ding Liren as his opponent and Carlsen will face Alireza. Vincent Keymer and Aronian will play the second match.
The quarterfinal stage will consist of two games each and in case of a tie the winner will be decided in games with shorter time control.
Result Fast 5: Fabiano Caruana (USA) def D Gukesh (India); Ding Liren (CHN) lost to Magnus Carlsen (NOR); Levon Aronian (USA) played to a draw with Alireza Firoza (FRA); Nodirbek Abdusattarov (Uzbekistan) drew with Vincent Keimer (Germany);
Round 6: lost to Gukesh Abdusattarov; Aronian defeats Liren; Carlsen draws with Caruana; Firozha defeated Keymer.
Round 7: Keymar defeats Gukesh; Liren played a draw with Alireza; Abdusattarov defeats Carlsen; Caruana defeated Aronian;
Final Standings Rapid: 1.Abdusattarov (5.5); 2. Keymer (5) 3. Caruana (4.5); 4. Alireza (4); 5. Carlsen (3.5) 6. Gukesh (3); 7. Aronian (2); Liren (0.5).
