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As D Gukesh gears up for the Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Tour, he posed for an image with the Botez sisters.
D Gukesh poses with the Botez sisters (Picture credit: X @alexandrabotez)
The Botez sisters, Alexandra and Andrea, have posted another picture with world champion chess player D Gukesh, which went viral on social media within hours, as Gukesh’s expression was yet again the focal point of the picture.
As Gukesh gears up for the Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Tour, he posed for an image with the Botez sisters, which prompted fans on social media to begin a meme fest.
While the Botez sisters are popular for sharing images with chess stars, which had already seen them create a social media meme fest with their previous image with Gukesh during the Germany leg of the Freestyle Chess Tour, saying that the latter’s reaction looked like they had taken him hostage, this time it had a different touch.
“Gukesh so happy to see us as always :),” Alexandra tweeted on Sunday night.
“Why are you holding a world champion hostage 😂,” a user commented.
Why are you holding a world champion hostage 😂— Nikhil Sapra | Collectooor (@nikhilsapra_) April 6, 2025
The Freestyle Chess Paris Grand Slam is the second of five events of the multi-million dollar Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour.
Each Grand Slam event features 12 participants: the top three of the previous Grand Slam, the top three by classical rating, two organiser wildcards, the winner of a major classical tournament and the winner of Chess.com‘s play-ins.
Besides Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi are also participating in the tournament, with high chances that an Indian will bag the title.
But the challenge will not be easy, with Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Ian Nepomniachtchi also in the mix.
The round-robin games will be played on Monday and Tuesday, and the top eight players from this round will advance to the knockouts. 12 players will compete in the round-robin matches.
Players ranked from first to fourth can pick their opponent, ranked from fifth to eighth, to face in the knockouts.
The player ranked ninth and 10th picks among players ranked from 11th and 12th as their opponent.
