D Gukesh qualifies for knockout stage

In the first of five events of this year’s Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, World Champion, India’s D Gukesh has qualified for the knockout stage. Gukesh progressed to the next stage despite losing to Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, the world’s highest-rated player, in the ninth and final round of the qualifiers in Weissenhaus, Germany.

Gukesh finished with 3.5 points, as he concluded the event without a single win. He drew seven matches and lost two, securing eighth place in the 10-player format. Iranian-turned-French Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja and Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan topped the leaderboard with 6.5 points each, out of a possible nine in the round-robin rapid format. The games featured 10 minutes for each player, with a 10-second increment per move. The tournament will now move to the knockout stage, where classical time control will be used.