Freestyle Grand Slam Tour Stage 1: Caruana handpicks World Champion Gukesh as his Quarterfinals opponent
09/02/2025 - Alireza Firouzja (FRA) scored an unbeaten 3/4 on the second day to top Freestyle Grand Slam Tour Stage 1. He was on the verge of beating Magnus Carlsen (NOR) in Round 7. However, he missed it and the game ended in a draw. Firouzja defeated the sole leader Javokhir Sindarov (UZB) in Round 9 to finish first in the Round-Robin stage. The ranking in the round-robin stage does not have a lot of consequence, except for choosing their opponent. The winner gets a choice from the bottom four out of top eight, then runner-up picks from the remaining three and so on. Thus, the QF lineup turned out to be: Firouzja - Vincent Keymer, Sindarov - Hikaru Nakamura, D Gukesh - Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen - Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Quarterfinals Game 1 starts today from 1 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes