Players experience bad times. There are no exceptions. In that way, there may not be a lot to read into D Gukesh’s modest run at the ongoing Superbet Chess Classic in the Romanian capital of Bucharest. After six of the nine rounds in this event, featuring 10 players, the youngest-ever world champion is placed last with two points. He is winless, with four draws and two defeats.
R Praggnanandhaa, the other Indian in action in Bucharest, is in the leading pack of four players.
The timing of this dip in Gukesh’s performance is critical. Up next is Norway Chess beginning on May 26, where Magnus Carlsen will be waiting for his first classical game against Gukesh after the Indian won the world title last December. The six-player field, where the participants take on each other twice, features the world’s top five and the No. 8. Arjun Erigaisi, the No. 3, is the other Indian in fray. For the world champion turning 19 on May 29, it is going to be an acid test.
Ranked fourth in the world and the top seed in Bucharest, Gukesh has taken games deep and long, like in the world championship match against Ding Liren. He doesn’t mind time pressure if he sees something and has the tenacity to go on. But unlike in Singapore, he hasn’t been able to nail it in the end. In the sixth-round defeat against Alireza Firouzja of France with black, Gukesh came back from a poor position, appeared to have secured a draw, and then lost the plot in a prolonged end-game.
In 19 classical games after the world championship, Gukesh has won five, drawn 11 and lost three. Other than one game against Erigaisi at the Tate Steel event in Wijk Aan Zee, which he lost, all the opponents Gukesh faced were rated below him. Of the five wins, three came against players rated below 2700. He was 2787 before Bucharest and this will lead to a dip in his ratings and world ranking. It can get worse in Norway.
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Of course, one can’t compare the Gukesh of the world championship with the Gukesh playing other tournaments. There is a huge difference in preparation. For the match against Ding, the teenager trained for months with his team of seconds headed by Grzegorz Gajewski, hired a mental conditioning coach in Paddy Upton and focused on one specific goal.
The set-up and objective is different in other competitions. One of his seconds for the Ding match, Jan-Krysztof Duda of Poland is a participant in Bucharest. Gukesh drew with him in the fifth round. Germany’s Vincent Keymer and Indian P Harikrishna are active elsewhere. Gukesh defeated both in Wijk Aan Zee. One can’t say that the level of intensity in preparation has fallen, but he is more on his own than before. When he was creating ripples, he was not that well-known. Now he is.
This is why they say that the road after success is more treacherous than the route taken to achieve it. Gukesh did well to finish runner-up behind Praggnanandhaa at the prestigious Tata Steel meet in January following a tie-breaker. The duo had finished the league stage on 8.5 points after 13 rounds. Things changed in the Paris freestyle event where Gukesh won three, drew two and lost eight games.
Since freestyle and classical are vastly different, it was expected that Gukesh would be back in his elements in Bucharest. But with three tough rounds coming up, things don’t look good. Looking ahead to Norway, where Carlsen is waiting to show who the boss is, things look ominous to be honest. Testing times for Gukesh. Learning opportunity as well. Being in unfamiliar territory also means an opportunity to rediscover yourself.
Also Read: Gukesh: Champion of Chess, and of a Cause