Gukesh Domraju’s first mistake in the war against Hikaru Nakamura came before sitting on the board on Monday.
On Monday, the freestyle chess was one of the most intensive evening Hadls in Paris during the second phase of the Grand Slam Tour, Gukesh said 10 minutes on the board with stars such as Ian Napomnocchi, Hikaru Nakamura, Pragnanande, Nodrabek Abdusterov and his World Championships. Six players were fighting their tricks with black pieces for the sixth and final classification game on Monday.
At the other end of the playing hall, the players led by Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Vidit Gujrathi and Arjun Erigasi were plotting their own moves with another equally skillful group white pieces of players.
It is one of the unique aspects of the freestyle chess phenomenon that players only know about the initial position for a match – in this case, a 60 – 10 minutes before starting actually 60 – 10 minutes before starting. Therefore, players are allowed to talk to other players who play with the same color against other opponents. Only, Gukesh should have been on the second table, given that he was playing with white pieces against Nakamura.
“Everyone is losing their mind from this point,” in official broadcasting, the Grandmaster Peter Leco was surprised when chess veteran Judit Polgar pointed out Gukesh’s error, while Gukesh vs Nakamura’s endgeam was playing outside.
“But in this situation Gukesh definitely wants to be on the other side (playing with black pieces),” in his last game of the day, the king of Gukesh was gauged by the pole.
It was like a day for Gukesh. The Indian teenager was able to defeat the compatriot Arjun Erigasi only and was able to capture Maxim Wester-Lagrav on the first day of the Paris event, where all 12 players played six rapid games in each. They will return to play five more games on Tuesday. The last eight players in the standing will compete in the quarter -finals.
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For Gukesh, there will be some consolation in the fact that he managed to win at least one game, and that too on Arjuna, who has been in an imperialist form in the freestyle chess, wins three online freestyle Friday events in the previous months. Unlike Arjuna, which seems to have been taken to the freestyle version like a duck for water, Gukesh has struggled.
A meeting of the mind ♟ #Freestyleches pic.twitter.com/1oebcryghn
– chess.com (@Chescom) 7 April, 2025
He had finished the first phase of the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour in Visenhus without a single win in rapid or classical sports, ending 8th among 10 players. Making it again in quarters can be a challenge in Paris, as Gukesh finds himself in 10th position in 12 players after the first six classification games.
It should be noted that the freestyle chess is almost completely like a completely different game. Each game begins with pieces on the backs, which leaves the possibility of a game with 960 separate initial positions. The idea of freestyle chess is to eliminate chess theory and take every game to an unwanted area from the initial stage itself.
This is why Gukesh, who is one of the best drilled chess players on the circuit, finds it difficult. In addition, he is a count-based player who thrives in long-term control games rather than fast and blitz events.
Meanwhile, Arjun, with a victory over Karuana, Carlson and Kimer, ends the sixth place day 1 and leads the Indian quartet in the standing, who won the Visenhus leg. Pragnanandha is ranked 7th after defeating Napo and Vidit. Except for Gukesh, the newly married Vidit is lost with everyone, whom he defeated, whom he defeated.
