After Tata Steel heartbreak, D Gukesh knocked out of Freestyle Chess

World No. 3 Fabiano Caruana defeated D Gukesh in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour quarterfinals at Weissenhaus in Germany on Monday. After losing a thrilling first leg of the quarterfinals on Sunday, India's World Champion was in a must-win situation in the second leg, where he played black.

However, the 18-year-old could not create clear-cut chances with black pieces, and his position worsened as early as move 10. Gukesh resigned after 18 moves when it was clear his chances of securing a win had disappeared.

Magnus Carlsen, Vincent Keymer and wildcard entrant Javokhir Sindarov are the other semifinalists. World No. 1 Carlsen will play German Keymer, while Sindarov will hope to continue his dream run against Caruana.

Earlier this month, Gukesh had come close to securing a title in his first event since becoming the youngest World Champion in December when he competed in the Tata Steel Masters at Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. However, Gukesh lost a thrilling final showdown with compatriot R Praggnanandhaa.

The freestyle chess variant is hardly explored, even at the highest level. In this particular variant, pieces in the back rank are jumbled, with as many as 960 different possibilities. A draw of lot 10 minutes before each round decides the opening position, making preparations extremely difficult.

Freestyle Chess is a private event co-promoted by Carlsen and German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner.

The event's conduct caused much furore after FIDE objected to the title 'World Championship' for the event. Though Freestyle Chess agreed to the FIDE demand after a lengthy public spat, the organisers said on Monday that the participants agreed to use the title 'Freestyle Chess Champion'.