D Gukesh finishes winless at Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam event

D Gukesh’s winless run continued as he lost to Alireza Firouzja on Friday, finishing in eighth place without a single win at the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam event in Wangels, Germany.

Gukesh had previously lost to Firouzja in the round-robin stage and was battling for seventh place. Despite a sensational comeback in the previous game securing a draw, Firouzja emerged victorious on Saturday, claiming seventh place and a prize of 30,000 dollars.

In contrast, Gukesh earned 20,000 dollars for his eighth-place finish. Vincent Keymer, who defeated Fabiano Caruana in the finals, pocketed 200,000 dollars. Caruana received 140,000 dollars, while Magnus Carlsen, who came third, was awarded 100,000 dollars. Javokhir Sindarov, in fourth place, earned 60,000 dollars, and Hikaru Nakamura, in fifth place, received 50,000 dollars.

Criticism has been directed towards Gukesh for his winless campaign at Weissenhaus, with some fans suggesting he may struggle in Chess960 and shorter formats requiring creativity. Nakamura, who defeated Gukesh in the first Grand Slam, highlighted Gukesh’s potential weakness in intuition.

Nakamura stated, “I would say probably the biggest weakness Gukesh currently has is that when he gets low on time, I don’t think his intuition is that great, and he simply couldn’t work through the calculations.”

He also emphasized the importance of analyzing games together, suggesting that Gukesh should collaborate with other players for improvement.