Latest news with #FreestyleChess'
Indian Express
20-07-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
Hilarious blunder as Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura study wrong opening position for 5 minutes
There was a hilarious blunder on day 4 of the Las Vegas leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour as Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura spent almost five minutes before their games against Arjun Erigaisi and Fabiano Caruana respectively analysing the wrong opening position. Both Carlsen and Nakamura only realised their mistake when they actually arrived on their board for their game and then saw the pieces lined up in position no 122. In the position that Carlsen and Nakamura had analysed, they had exchanged the starting position of their queen with a knight: instead of the knight being on the a file and the queen being on b, Carlsen and Nakamura were analysing a starting position where the queen was in the corner and the knight was on b file. ChessBase India caught Hikaru looking at the position on the screen just before the start of his game and asking Carlsen, 'Did we look at the wrong position?' Carlsen, too, looked surprised at this. Then, he let out a short laugh as he looked at the board itself. Remarkably, despite the hilarious error, Magnus beat Arjun in that game while Nakamura drew with Caruana. Both Nakamura and Carlsen were playing with white pieces. Carlsen and Nakamura will be fighting for third place today while Arjun and Caruana will battle for fifth place. Praggnanandhaa will take on Wesley So for seventh spot. In scenes captured before the match, Arjun and Caruana had opted to analyse the game for the full 10 minutes. Cameras caught both of them sitting on the communal table and sitting on their knees to evaluate what their best response should be. Nakamura meanwhile opted to analyse the position by himself on one of the playing boards. Then, Carlsen walked up to him and joined him to analyse the game. Carlsen, with his white jacket worn only on one shoulder, did plenty of analysing. 'Wait a second, breaking news! Magnus and Hikaru are teaming up. For the first time in this event,' said grandmaster Peter Leko on the Freestyle Chess' Pro Stream. As the camera focussed on the analysis of the world no 1 and no 2, in the pro commentary stream, grandmasters like Leko, Judit Polgar and Vincent Keymer sounded confused by the moves the players seemed to be making. When Carlsen played 1.c4 as his opening move against Arjun, that caused even more surprise, as Leko said: 'Wait a second, after analysing d4 for so long, he's played c4. Is he fooling everyone?' Soon enough, Nakamura too played 1.c4.
Hindustan Times
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
Vidit Gujrathi responds to D Gukesh criticism with ‘Norway Chess' remark in ‘FIDE vs. Freestyle Chess war' statement
Since D Gukesh defeated Ding Liren to become the youngest-ever World Chess Champion in history, there has been plenty of debate regarding the Indian GM's credibility with the title. After his victory vs Liren last year, the World C'ship received criticised from the likes of Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik, who criticised its quality. Then Gukesh silenced his critics in January, coming second at the Tata Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee. But then his run of good form ended at Weissenhaus, where he endured a winless streak and came eighth. Then in Paris, he failed to even qualify for the knockouts, which has led to question marks over his Freestyle Chess skills. The criticism on Gukesh has been a big debate lately, and has conincided with Freestyle Chess' ongoing tussle with FIDE, over a Chess960 World C'ship. Speaking to India Today, Indian GM Vidit Gujrathi weighed in on the issues, and felt they weren't inter-related. 'I think these two issues are quite different. As for Gukesh, it's too soon to judge. He's just achieved the world championship title, and he had a strong performance at Wijk Aan Zee. Classical chess is clearly his strength, and I think the upcoming Norway Chess in May will be a good test for him. It's well known that Gukesh hasn't paid as much attention to other formats, and it takes time for him to adjust. So, he probably still needs more time to adapt to Freestyle and other formats. But I'm sure he wants to excel in all of them because, to be a true world champion, being proficient across all formats is expected. I'm confident he's highly motivated to improve in that area,' he said. 'As for the FIDE vs. Freestyle war, I haven't delved into the details much, but any conflict that doesn't contribute to the sport's growth isn't ideal. I hope they can come to an agreement because I don't think it has to be about choosing between classical chess and Freestyle chess. Both can coexist, and if they can figure out how to make that work, it would be great for the sport,' he added. Gukesh is the current India No. 1 and will also face Magnus Carlsen in a classical chess showdown in Norway this year.
