Gukesh fights back to hold Firouzja

World champion D Gukesh fought back from a hopeless position to eke out a draw against Alireza Firouzja of France in the first game of the final round of the first Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Hamburg. Germany.

Fighting for the seventh spot in the last-eight qualifiers, a defensive Gukesh tried his way out to score his first victory and survived some real scary moments before getting a much desired draw in another long drawn endgame.

Local hero Vincent Keymer was at his best as he drew the first blood against Fabiano Caruana of the United States. Going in with 1-0 lead with one game to go, the onus is now on Caruana to draw level that will force a tiebreaker.

Meanwhile, the world's top rated player, Magnus Carlsen of Norway put aside his semi-final loss against Keymer in style, defeating giant killer Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan.

Fighting for the third place now in the US$750000 prize money tournament, Carlsen won with black pieces and is a huge favourite to win the third-place play-off.

Hikaru Nakamura of the United States also won his game with black pieces turning the tables on Nodirbek Abdusattorov just when the position looked perfectly fine for the latter.

Abdusattorov went for unwarranted complications in the minor piece endgame and had to pay dearly.

Results: Vincent Keymer (GER) beat Fabiano Caruana (USA); Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB) lost to Hikaru Nakamura (USA); Alireza Firouzja (FRA) drew with D Gukesh (IND); Javokhir Sindarov (UZB) lost to Magnus Carlsen (NOR).