D Gukesh called ‘more of an unknown’ by Caruana, reveals reason behind picking India No. 1 as Freestyle Chess opponent

Before the Weissenhaus quarter-finals, fans were left shocked when Fabiano Caruana handpicked D Gukesh as his opponent.

D Gukesh fell to a defeat against Fabiano Caruana in the first game of their quarter-final showdown, at Weissenhaus Resort in Wangels (Germany). The pair are up against each other in the first leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour,

D Gukesh lost to Fabiano Caruana on Sunday.

Both grandmasters played a closely-fought battle, and it was the most intense among other quarter-final games on Sunday. But then Gukesh’s weakness in Chess960 was once again showcased as Caruana increased his pressure on the reigning world champion. The 32-year-old sealed the win with a bombshell 40…Rf3!! move, making his passed pawn unstoppable.

Gukesh did have his winning chances earlier, but he made a massive mistake on the 33rd-move, when both players were under three minutes.

Fabiano Caruana explains why he picked D Gukesh

Before the quarter-finals, fans were left shocked when Caruana handpicked Gukesh as his opponent, considering the Indian GM’s sensational form in Singapore and the recently concluded Tata Masters. Meanwhile, Caruana had an abysmal campaign in Wijk aan Zee.

So Caruana was asked to explain his decision on picking Gukesh as his quarter-final opponent. Speaking after his win on Sunday, Caruana told Take Take Take application, “Well, the thing is I have to pick someone. I could flip a coin, right? But they're both super strong players. I mean, maybe Gukesh is around 2790. Maybe Nodirbek is around 2780. I don't know. It's not like there's a huge qualitative difference. Of course, Gukesh has the more experience in terms of playing for the World Championship. That's a wealth of experience and winning the World Championship. And he's played more high-stakes moments compared to Nodirbek. But Nodirbek has advantages in terms of putting pressure on his opponents. Sometimes it doesn't work out.”

“Like today, I think playing a bit too fast and maybe not so carefully. But sometimes it's very dangerous. So it's a bit of a toss-up. I think for me, Gukesh was a bit more... more of an unknown than Nodirbek in some ways. Like, we have a lot of experience against each other. We played a match here last year, and I just decided before that, like, if it's between... I was, like, sure that Nodirbek would still be there, because I thought Sindarov will probably not pick his countryman. So I thought, okay, if it's between Nodirbek and Hikaru, I'll probably pick Nodirbek. Between Gukesh and Nodirbek, or Gukesh and Hikaru, I'll probably pick Gukesh in that case,” he added.

In the ongoing Grand Slam Tour, players who finish in the top-four of the standings in the round-robin stage of each leg get to select their opponents, who finish from fifth to eighth spots. Gukesh finished eighth in the standings, managing to somehow bag a quarter-final berth.