D Gukesh’s hopes of winning the Weissenhaus leg of the inaugural Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 came to an end on Monday (10 January) as he was forced to resign after just 18 moves in the second quarter-finals against American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana.

Before the Weissenhaus quarter-finals, fans were left shocked when Fabiano Caruana handpicked D Gukesh as his opponent.

World champion D Gukesh exited the Freestyle Grand Slam Chess after his second quarterfinal loss to Fabiano Caruana in Hamburg. Gukesh, needing a win, blundered a pawn early, leading to his resignation in just 18 moves.

The quarter-finals in the Weissenhaus leg of the inaugural Freestyle Chess Grand Slam 2025 is bing played over two games. Gukesh lost Game 1 of the quarter-finals to Caruana in 40 moves. H played with white pieces. Caruana will play with white pieces in Game 2 of the quarters.

While Gukesh is out of the quarterfinal, his time in Weissenhaus still continues, as he will battle for the fifth to eighth ranking spots, playing the loser of the Hikaru Nakamura vs Jakovhir Sindarov quarterfinal tie. Fifth place gets $50,000 and 10 points, while eighth gets $10,000 and 4 points.

Classical World Champion, India’s D. Gukesh lost the second leg of the quarterfinal match against USA’s Fabiano Caruana in the 2025 Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam tour in Hamburg, Germany on Monday.

Finishing eighth among 10 participants, Gukesh just about made it to the knockout stage edging out Vladimir Fedoseev of Slovenia and Levon Aronian of United States, the last two finishers in the round-robin stage that was played under rapid-chess rules.

Having lost the first game with white pieces, World champion D Gukesh did not last long against the American Grandmaster in a must-win tie with Caruana finishing the contest in a mere 18 moves.