Freestyle Chess Grand Slam: Gukesh loses second straight game to Caruana
Gukesh will now play the fifth to eighth place play-offs.
Gukesh Dommaraju (Photo credit: ChessBase India/X)
India's Gukesh Dommaraju suffered a second straight loss against Fabiano Caruana in the quarter-finals of the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam in Weissenhaus, Germany on Monday.
The 18-year-old Indian, playing with the black pieces, landed in a difficult position out of the opening and never had a chance as Caruana kept the pressure on with accurate moves.
Sensing that even a draw here would not help him, Gukesh promptly resigned after just 18 moves into the game in an much inferior position.
Caruana won the quarter-finals 2-0 without breaking a sweat. The American had got the better of Gukesh in the first game on Sunday with the black pieces.
The loss means that Gukesh will now head into the fifth to eighth place play-offs.
Earlier on Saturday, Caruana had opted to play against Gukesh in the quarter-finals.
"I'll play the world champion," he had then said, while also opting to play the first game with black pieces.
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