Gukesh to face Carlsen and co. at Weissenhaus Freestyle Grand Slam Tour Stage 1
07/02/2025 - Freestyle Grand Slam Tour Stage 1 starts in Hamburg, Germany today. This will be the first time the World no.1 - Magnus Carlsen (NOR) will face D Gukesh after he became the 18th World Champion. The remaining eight players are - Fabiano Caruana (USA), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB), Alireza Firouzja (FRA), Levon Aronian (USA), Vincent Keymer (GER), Vladimir Fedoseev (SLO) and Javokhir Sindarov (UZB). Sindarov replaced Vishy Anand who withdrew from the tournament. The Uzbek was the runner-up in the online qualifiers behind Fedoseev who won and earned his spot. There will be five rounds of Rapid games played today in the Round-Robin stage and the remaining four will take place tomorrow. Gukesh will face Carlsen in the ninth round. Round 1 starts today from 1 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: IM Sagar Shah

