Gukesh to face Carlsen and co. at Weissenhaus Freestyle Grand Slam Tour Stage 1
Freestyle Grand Slam Tour Stage 1 starts in Hamburg, Germany today. This will be the first time the World no.1 - Magnus Carlsen (NOR) will face D Gukesh after he became the 18th World Champion. The remaining eight players are - Fabiano Caruana (USA), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB), Alireza Firouzja (FRA), Levon Aronian (USA), Vincent Keymer (GER), Vladimir Fedoseev (SLO) and Javokhir Sindarov (UZB). Sindarov replaced Vishy Anand who withdrew from the tournament. The Uzbek was the runner-up in the online qualifiers behind Fedoseev who won and earned his spot. There will be five rounds of Rapid games played today in the Round-Robin stage and the remaining four will take place tomorrow. Gukesh will face Carlsen in the ninth round. Round 1 starts today from 1 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: IM Sagar Shah
Six out of World top seven in action
A lot of things happened between Freestyle Chess and FIDE before this event. The World no.1 shared this on that matter: "I think it's generally unfortunate what has happened. Of course I am happy now to be here and be able to focus on the tournament. I think things could have been resolved probably at an earlier point but right now it's very hard to have any sort of relationship with any of the leadership in FIDE for at least speaking for myself and my father."
"I am very much looking forward to play against the Classical World Champion" - Magnus Carlsen
"It's a new addition for sure. In general, every tournament I play, I take it seriously and I try to do my best. It'll be the same. It's a new format. Nobody knows how to prepare or nobody knows like what is the best way to do things, so it's like an exciting new experience. for me and my trainer to (figure out) how to work on this. It'll be a lot of learning as well but yeah just hoping to give my best and perform well in the event." - D Gukesh
"To be very honest, I did not expect to do so well because one month after the World Championship, I did some chess for as much time as I got but for sure not ideal preparation. Also, I arrived in Wijk (aan Zee) few hours before the first game, so I think I was doing well mostly because of my enthusiasm to get back to chess. That one month was quite hectic and I was just happy to be in Wijk just to play chess. I think you could see from my games that I was usually creating something over the board, just being very creative, so that was quite nice. Obviously the performance was amazing till the last round and then one really bad day but okay it happens. I have had so many good days in the previous tournaments like so many lucky breaks that I got so yeah, you can't have it all. It was surely disappointing but also few things to learn from that and improve. Before the tournament, if you had told me that I would be finishing joint first, I would be very happy." - Gukesh on his performance at 87th Tata Steel Masters 2025.
Players
The World no.1 - Magnus Carlsen (NOR), World no.2 - Fabiano Caruana (USA), World no.3 and reigning World Fischer Random Champion - Hikaru Nakamura (USA), World no.5 and reigning World Champion - D Gukesh, World no.6 and former World Rapid Champion - Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB), World no.7 - Alireza Firouzja (FRA), World no.12 and only two-time World Cup winner in history - Levon Aronian (USA), World no.19 - Vincent Keymer (GER), World no.24, European Fischer Random 2024 Champion and Freestyle GST Qualifier winner - Vladimir Fedoseev (SLO), and World no.31 and 44th Olympiad Gold medalist - Javokhir Sindarov (UZB).
Total prize fund
US$ 750000 per Grand Slam
Format
Time: Rapid and Standard
• Round robin: Rapid 10 minutes for the game + 10 seconds per move
• Knockout stage - Game 1+2 = 90’+30’’ / Game 3+4 = 10’+10’’ / Game 5+6 = 5’+2’’ / Game 7 = Armageddon
Schedule
7th and 8th February: Round-Robin stage - Rapid
9th and 10th February: Quarterfinals - Classical
11th and 12th February: Semifinals and Playoffs for 5th to 8th - Classical
13th and 14th February: Finals - Classical
