NEW DELHI: A rocky start dampened D Gukesh‘s spirit in the opening leg of the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, with the youngest-ever world chess champion struggling to match the pace of the unique format last February.
From his first experience on tour, the 18-year-old managed 11 draws, six defeats, and no wins.
In a roster of ten players, he subsequently finished eighth after losing to Alireza Firouzja in the seventh-place playoff, earning just USD 20,000 from the grand USD 750,000 prize pool.
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This time, home favourite Alireza has backed out and will not feature in the Paris leg, with Richard Rapport chosen as his replacement for the event scheduled from April 7 to 14.
As the reigning World chess champion, Gukesh is eligible to participate in all legs of the Freestyle Chess tour.
Nevertheless, given his struggles in a format that shuns traditional opening theories and eliminates familiar lines of play, questions loomed over his participation in Paris.
Speaking exclusively to TimesofIndia.com from Paris, Freestyle Chess co-founder Jan Henric Buettner made it clear there was never any doubt.
“Gukesh is a humble, cool, and kind person. He just accepted the bad results. He didn’t do pretty well, but there was never a question of whether he’d participate in the next leg. He simply said, ‘I’ll do better next time,'” Buettner said.
“Anyway, we talked about this here in Paris. It was a short conversation (with Gukesh). He was very calm and accepted the situation. I think that’s great,” he added.
Despite the prize pool remaining the same, the Paris leg will witness a stronger Indian contingent.
At the Pavillon Chesnaie du Roy in Paris, Gukesh will be joined by Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, and newly-married Vidit Gujrathi, who earned his spot by winning the open online qualifier.
But they take on a stacked field, including Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, and Vincent Keymer, the winner of the German leg.
“We have an incredible roster of 12 players… Just thinking about it! Four players won’t make it to the quarterfinals. And really, you could try to guess who those four would be, but it’s tough. It’s crazy to think about. Out of those 12, who would you even pick?” remarked Buettner.
In Freestyle Chess, world rankings hold little value.
Being the world no. 3 thus hardly matters. But Gukesh has arrived and will play over the next couple of days to make the knockout stage of the tournament, which promises not just a bigger payday but also a shot at redemption in a year where his best result remains a runners-up finish at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee.
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