Why did Gukesh resign in just 18 moves to Fabiano Caruana in Freestyle Chess at Weissenhaus

Gukesh Dommaraju resigned after just 18 moves in the second game of the quarter-finals against Fabiano Caruana at the Weissenhaus leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour.
Gukesh needed to win the game on Monday after losing the first game with white pieces on Sunday against Caruana. Had he won with black pieces today, he would forced the battle into a tiebreak.
But he was at a disadvantage from as early as the 6th move after Caruana picked off a pawn from Gukesh’s army with his knight on the f5 square. Gukesh responded with an inaccuracy: he should have picked off Caruana’s defenseless pawn on a2 with his bishop. Instead, he opted to pressure Caruana’s knight with his g file pawn, trying to kick it off. (The world champion played 6… g6?!, which the engine said was an inaccuracy while 6… Bxa2 was the best choice).
Story continues below this ad

Gukesh played another inaccuracy on the 17th move (17… c5?! Instead of 17… Nd7, which the computer said was the best move.)
One move later, he threw in the towel and will now fight for position in the 5th to 8th spots. The early resignation was because Caruana had an extra pawn on the board, his king was safely hidden away while Gukesh’s stood unprotected in plain sight on g7, and the white army had a much better pawn structure.
INTERACTIVE: How Gukesh lost to Fabiano Caruana in 18 moves

“It was very clear from the start today that the opening position favours the player with white pieces. Especially, if he needs to make just a draw there is no danger really for white. There were no pieces that had to be recovered from crazy squares. The queen was in the centre, the king was on c1 in the starting position. It was easier for white to stabilise the position from the start,” explained chess legend Judit Polgar on the Chess24 broadcast.
READ MORE | Fabiano Caruana explains why he picked world champion Gukesh as his opponent: ‘He has played more high-stakes games’Story continues below this ad
Polgar also went on to explain that Fabiano’s “brain was very well wired” for the freestyle variant of chess because of his curiosity and the amount of time and energy he spent on training for the variant.
Gukesh, on the other hand, is still winless at Weissenhaus. He lost to Alireza Firouzja and Magnus Carlsen in the rapid section to decide the seeding for the knockout phase. He just about snuck into the quarter-finals in 8th spot. And then, has lost both his games so far to Caruana in the classical format.