CHENNAI: This has been an interesting year for D Gukesh, the world champion. Only 19, at some level there's a case for saying that he has already achieved the one thing he set out to do when he became a professional. That heady night in Singapore when he was crowned as king of the world was everything he had worked towards ever since he took the decision to drop out of school.
At the end of 2024, the teen stamped his authority. Now? "It has not been an easy year for him," Grzegorz Gajewski, his primary coach, tells this daily. In Classical play, the Chennai boy has had some big wins, including a maiden victory over Magnus Carlsen. He also found a way past Arjun Erigaisi but the titles have continued to elude him. In fact, his best Classical result of 2025 was an agonising defeat on tie-breaks against R Praggnanandhaa at Wijk aan Zee to start the year.
There were also some promising performances in Rapid — a format that isn't his strongest — on the Croatia leg of the Grand Chess Tour in July when he finished third. But this has been a 'transitional year', according to Gajewski, who has been part of Gukesh's team for well over the last three years.
"It's been a transitional year after winning the World Championship. He kind of has to reshape certain things, find motivation, new targets, new objectives. When you are working your whole life to achieve something (and you achieve it), it can be a difficult situation, especially for somebody young," the Pole GM says.
It's why Gukesh's turbocharged performance at the European Club Cup (he won individual gold as he led SuperChess to continental gold) was important. "He's feeling very good about himself," Gajewski says. "I think ECC was very helpful. It's good to be reminded that you can play very well and kind of needed it because now the level of confidence goes up."
That confidence was seen in the way the top seed eased past Kazerbek Nogerbek at the World Cup in Goa. Even as some of the top seeds struggled to show their true levels, the 19-year-old beat the Kazakh with Black pieces in the second round on Wednesday.
He doesn't, strictly speaking anyway, advance at the World Cup. He doesn't need to finish in the top three places because he doesn't need to qualify for the Candidates. But it's a very important event for the young Indian because there exists this perception that he isn't a worthy world champion. Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov, Nodirbek Abdusattarov... players, past and present, up and down the chess paddock have taken aim at him.
For whatever reason, his losses, even in other formats, have acted as a referendum on his crown. A good couple of weeks by the coast will help quieten the noise ahead of 2026 when he will defend his crown.
On Friday, the Indian will play Frederik Svane for a place in the fourth round.
Pragg survives multiple scares
R Praggnanandhaa was staring at elimination multiple times during a bum-clenching series of tie-breaks against Australia's Temur Kuybokarov but eventually outlasted his opponent in a wild match. The Indian, who reached the final of the last edition before losing to Magnus Carlsen, was in a lost position in the first of the rapid tie-breaks. His only objective was to not lose on the spot as he forced the Australian to find the precise moves. When Kuybokarov faltered, the Indian found some wriggle room to force the match into the shorter rapid tie-breaks. There, he had to win on demand to force the second round into Blitz tie-breaks. Here also the Indian was under pressure before winning twice in two games to advance to the third round where he will face Robert Hovhannisyan.
Friday's Rd 3, Game 1 (select matches): Daniel Dardha vs P Harikrishna, Titas Stremavicius vs V Pranav, Alexander Donchenko vs Anish Giri, Vidit Gujrathi vs Sam Shankland, M Pranesh vs Vincent Keymer, Shamsiddin Vokhidov vs Arjun Erigaisi