Magnus Carlsen highlights D Gukesh’s flaws after Freestyle Chess 2025 win: ‘Took too many chances…’

Reigning World Champion D Gukesh was unable to register a victory in the last match of the round-robin phase of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour as he was completely outclassed by his Norwegian rival and world number one Magnus Carlsen. Despite the loss, Gukesh qualified for the knockout stage of the tournament with a total of 3.5 points after 7 draws and two losses.

After the victory on Saturday, Carlsen spoke to Take Take Take app where he analyzed the match, stating, “Yeah, I was... I think the game was very decent for a long time. I was very happy to get in this counterstriking in the center with e4, 35. I thought... I don't know, I thought, like, my queen is controlling the diagonal. I always have these tricks with going rook e8 and then long castling, and it felt like his position was a bit shaky. That I'd... Somehow, I'd seen that he could play d4, but I was, like, one, hoping maybe he wouldn't play it, two, hoping that I would find something and I checked it briefly afterwards actually there is something with Queen e8 and Knight b5, I mean that's really really difficult to find,”

“So after that I was a bit disappointed because then the position was just equal and yeah honestly after that I think it was just a lack of experience on his part because he just took too many chances and then when it was time to be a little bit... He was really brave, and then when it was time to be brave again, he retreated. But by the time he retreated, it was very difficult to hold his position in practice. And at that point, I thought my winning chances were great.” Carlsen added.

What is Freestyle Chess?

The freestyle chess events are a brainchild of Carlsen and German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner and could soon be a permanent fixture for professional chess players, as per a PTI report.

Freestyle is a new name for Fischer's random chess, where the chess pieces are randomly set up at the start of the game, instead of conventional chess, where they are aligned on both sides. Due to there being 960 different ways to set up a chessboard, the Fischer random chess is also called chess 960.

Gukesh vs Carlsen:

After his win in Singapore, chess great Magnus Carlsen had said that classical chess was perhaps the "worst way" to measure a player, adding that rapid chess was perhaps a more "pure" form of chess. He said that Gukesh's World Chess Championship final against China's Ding Liren looked like a second or third-round match in an open tournament.

Gukesh had then responded to the Norwegian stating that he understood that the quality of the games wasn’t always up to the mark, but overall, it was a good championship match. While Gukesh challenged Carlsen to the title, the Norwegian has ruled out such a title clash.