The quarter-finals in the Weissenhaus leg of the inaugural Freestyle Chess Grand Slam 2025 is bing played over two games. Gukesh lost Game 1 of the quarter-finals to Caruana in 40 moves. H played with white pieces. Caruana will play with white pieces in Game 2 of the quarters.

Classical World Champion, India’s D. Gukesh lost the second leg of the quarterfinal match against USA’s Fabiano Caruana in the 2025 Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam tour in Hamburg, Germany on Monday.

At a meeting in Weissenhaus on Sunday, the Freestyle Chess Players Club declared the 2025 Grand Slam Tour winner will be titled 'Freestyle Chess Champion'. The club plans to establish an independent association to protect their interests,

In the other opening quarter-final games, Magnus Carlsen and Vincent Keymer defeat Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Alireza Firouzja respectively while Hikaru Nakamura plays out a 60-move draw against Javokhir Sindarov.

World champion Gukesh faces Caruana in Freestyle Grand Slam chess tournament quarterfinals, under pressure to perform.

The knockout stage of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour’s first event will begin on Sunday, February 9 with World Champion D Gukesh in action.

The five-tournament series will unfold through the year, with Paris, New York, New Delhi and Cape Town being the other four host cities. It will end with the final competition from December 5 to 12

Having lost the first game with white pieces, World champion D Gukesh did not last long against the American Grandmaster in a must-win tie with Caruana finishing the contest in a mere 18 moves.

World champion D Gukesh exited the Freestyle Grand Slam Chess after his second quarterfinal loss to Fabiano Caruana in Hamburg. Gukesh, needing a win, blundered a pawn early, leading to his resignation in just 18 moves.