D. Gukesh, the reigning Classical World Champion, lost the second leg of his quarterfinal match against the USA’s Fabiano Caruana at the 2025 Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam tour in Hamburg, Germany, on Monday.
This defeat eliminated Gukesh from contention for the top four after suffering back-to-back losses in the two-legged quarterfinal against Caruana. The 18-year-old now shifts his focus to competing in the 5th-8th place playoff in the coming days.
Caruana needed just 18 moves to secure his place in the semifinals. Playing with the white pieces, he gained an early advantage and maintained the momentum throughout the game to defeat his Indian opponent.
Caruana will face the winner of the match between Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov and fellow American Hikaru Nakamura.
In other matches, World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen is currently in a favourable position against Nodirbek Abdusattorov and appears poised to qualify for the top four. Meanwhile, French player Alireza Firouzja holds a stronger position against Germany’s Vincent Keymer in a must-win situation.
