Hamburg, February 14 (HS): India’s D. Gukesh bounced back from a disappointing situation to draw against France’s Alireza Firouzja in the first game of the final round of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. Gukesh, who is battling for the seventh spot in the last-eight qualifiers, defended throughout the game and managed to draw the match after a long endgame.

Local player Vincent Keymer has taken a 1-0 lead by defeating America’s Fabiano Caruana with a brilliant performance. Now Caruana will have a chance to equalise, for which he will need a tiebreaker.

On the other hand, Norway’s Magnus Carlsen overcame Uzbekistan’s Giant Killer Javokhir Sindarov to forget his defeat against Keymer in the semi-finals. Carlsen will now play the play-off for the third place in this tournament with a prize money of US $ 750,000, where he is a strong contender for victory.

Hikaru Nakamura of America also won with black pieces. He turned the tables in the match against Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan when the situation did not seem to be in his favor. Abdusattorov tried to increase the complexities in the game of small pieces, but he had to suffer the consequences in the form of defeat.

Results:

Vincent Keymer (Germany) defeated Fabiano Caruana (USA).

Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) lost to Hikaru Nakamura (USA).

The match between Alireza Firouzja (France) and D. Gukesh (India) was a draw.

Javokhir Sindarov (Uzbekistan) lost to Magnus Carlsen (Norway).

Exciting matches are expected in the next round of the tournament, where players will give their all for the final victory.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar