Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge: D Gukesh Beats GM Magnus Carlsen, Ding Liren and Levon Aronian

D Gukesh defeated the world no.1 Magnus Carlsen, the reigning world champion Ding Liren and two-time World Cup winner Levon Aronian on the first day of Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge to secure second place in the standings after four rounds.

Hyderabad: Indian chess prodigy Dommaraju Gukesh emerged victorious against world number one Magnus Carlsen and reigning world champion Ding Liren in the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge playoffs on Friday. Gukesh has lost only first round to French Grand Master Alireza Firouzja out of the four.

Gukesh also defeated two-time World Cup winner Levon Aronian of the United States of America. With three wins in four rounds, he is now comfortably placed at second spot in the standings only behind German Grand Master Vincent Keymer (3.5 points in four rounds). Carlsen stands fifth in the eight-player field.

This is the first instance when Gukesh has participated in an elite Freestyle Chess event, renowned as Fischer Random Chess or Chess 960.

Eight players are contesting in the tournament including GM Magnus Carlsen, who has hand-picked his rivals. The other players in the tournament are World no.2 - Fabiano Caruana of the USA, current World Champion Ding Liren of China, World no.6 Alireza Firouzja of France, former World Rapid champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan, World no.17 Vincent Keymer Germany and only two-time World Cup winner in history Levon Aronian of USA.

Gukesh will face Fabiano Caruana in the fifth round on Saturday.

Gukesh, who finished joint second at the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament, will face a quite contrasting challenge to adapt the game conditions as the playing format of the competition is completely different.

In rapid format, the players will get 25 minutes each with a 10-second increment, while in the classical segment, they will have 90 minutes for 40 moves and then 30 minutes for the entire game with a 30-second increment from move one.

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