India's Grandmaster D Gukesh had to be content with a sixth-place finish in the rapid play-offs of the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess challenge after losing the last three rounds in Wangels. (More Chess News)
Nod🔯irbek Abdusattarov of Uzbekistan dominated the rapid event that was mainly done to determine the pairings for the knockout stage.
The young Uzbek ended⛎ with an impressive 5.5 points out of a💝 possible seven and finished a half point clear of Vincent Keymer of Germany.
Fabiano American Levon Aronian ended seventh ahead of the struggling reigning world champion Ding Liren who ෴made just a draw with six losses ꧑in the event.
Gukesh simply had a bad day in off🌼ice. The day started on a tough note against Caruana who did not miss any trick in the book to knock down a rook for a minor piece before rampaging the black’s kingside with a perfect attack.
Against Abdusattarov, Gukesh had to make some difficult choices i𝄹n a complicated middle game and for once, the Indian was on the wrong side while against Keymer it was all over in a mere 22 moves.
With the rapid games done with, Gukesh will now take on Caruana in the꧂ Quarterfinals to be played under Classical time control. It is a known fa🐓ct that Classical Chess is Indian’s forte and he is likely to be a tough challenger to the elite opponents.
Abdusattarov, by winning, gets off-form Ding Liren as his opponent and Carlsen will meetﷺ match Alireza. Vincent Keymer and Aronian will play the other match.
In the Quarterfinal stages, there will b🎀e two games each and the winner will be decided in games of shorter time control in case of a tied result.
Results rapid 5: Fabiano Caruana (USA) beat D Gukesh (Ind); Ding Liren (Chn) lost to Magnus Carlsen (nor); Levon Aronian (Usa) drew with Alireza Fi꧃rouza (Fra); Nodirbek Abdusattarov (Uzb) drew with Vincent Keymer (Ger);
Round 6: Gukesh lost to Abdusattarov; Aronian ꦫbeat Liren; Carlsen drew with Caruana; Firouza beat Keymer.
Round 7: Keymer beat Guke🔴sh; Liren drew with Alireza; Abdusattarov beat Carlsen; Caruana beat Aronian;
Final stan𓆉dings rapid: 1.Abdusattarov (5.5); 2. Keymer (5) 3. Caruana (4.5); 4. Alireza (4); 5. Carlsen (3.5) 6. Gukesh (3); 7. Aronian (2); Liren (0.5).
