Atreyo Mukhopadhyay
There appears to be something called the world champion’s syndrome in chess. In the aftermath of winning the title, the player hits a downward trail. It happened to Ding Liren following his triumph in 2023. After dethroning the Chinese last year, D Gukesh is in a seemingly similar situation. At world No. 11, he is not out of the elite zone. Neither is it comparable with Ding’s steep fall. But this is after a long time that the Indian is not in the top 10.
It’s more of a point to note rather than an alarm. Other than Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, the only one who has retained his place among the 10 this year is perhaps Arjun Erigaisi. The rest of the slots have seen occupants change. It’s a volatile place. There have been upward and downward movements, and R Praggnanandhaa is an example, who in turn has broken into this bracket.
Gukesh’s ranking suffered because he had more bad outings than good. The latest was the Grand Swiss Open in Samarkand. He was the top seed and finished 41st with six points from 11 rounds. After a sound start, he lost three successive games against opponents rated way below him. Two of them were teenagers. Because of his high rating, defeats hurt him more. That’s why he is not in the top 10. Otherwise, despite a middling year, he was No. 6 in the September rankings.
“Don’t think there is reason to worry,” Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua told RevSportz. “There will be rough patches. One can say there is no pressure, but there is. Pressure on Gukesh is more because he is the world champion. Then, Arjun and Pragg are breathing down his neck. So things have been different for him this year. But he had just one bad tournament. Happens to every player.”
There were good moments as well. The year started with a second-place finish on tie-breaker against Pragg at the super strong Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee. Gukesh achieved a personal milestone by defeating Carlsen in the classical and rapid formats for the first time. He also had a win and a loss against No. 2 Caruana. The 19-year-old topped the rapid section of the Grand Chess Tour to show that his speed game is gathering momentum.
However, the world champion not winning anything and getting pushed out of the top 10 will make heads turn. Many had said he was not a deserving world champion after his victory in Singapore. They have not been that vocal this year and some of them lauded him for his victory in rapid over Carlsen. But still, those who want to think that no Gukesh in the top 10 is not a surprise, can do that.
Barua looks at it differently. “Had Gukesh wanted to protect rating points, he could have opted out of a few events,” he said. “That he chose to play shows he is trying to test himself all the time, across formats. He is not afraid of dropping points. That’s a positive sign. There is not much to read into top 10 and all that.”
The Chennai star has a chance to check where he stands at the FIDE World Cup starting on October 30. Except for the top three, almost everybody else will be in Goa, because this knockout event offers two tickets to the 2026 Candidates. Going by rankings, Erigaisi and Pragg are the top two players and Gukesh is seventh, although the tournament seeding method is different. Then, seedings mean little in these events. Having got a taste of that in Samarkand, the youngest world champion would prefer something different on his plate in Goa.
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