CHENNAI: D Gukesh's below-par year continued as he was shown the door by Germany's Frederik Svane in the third round of the World Cup in Goa. The top-seed, who enjoyed a serene second round over Kazybek Nogerbek, didn't get a favourable outcome out of the opening with white pieces.
He was fighting, trying to get his pieces to breathe as he came under sustained pressure from the pawn advancement of his opponent. In the end, after 55 moves, the 19-year-old world champion resigned in a totally lost endgame.
Even though Gukesh was down only one pawn in a knight endgame, his three pawns were isolated and weak whereas Svane had a pawn chain with the g pawn ideally positioned to queen.
This is the latest in a catalogue of tournaments where the young world champion hasn't lived up to his billing. At the FIDE Grand Swiss, for instance, he finished joint 41st after three back-to-back losses during the course of the tournament.
It's why his coach had admitted that 2025 has not been an easy year for his ward. "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," the Pole GM had told this daily a few years ago. "When you are working your whole life to achieve something (and you achieve it), it can be a difficult situation, especially for somebody young."
What has also not helped the Indian is the constant outside noise about the world title he won in Singapore in 2024. Everybody from Magnus Carlsen to Garry Kasparov have taken at him. But it comes with the territory of being a world champion.
To be fair, the Indian was very much in prep as he blitzed out the first 11 moves. Even as Svane spent more than 30 minutes in the opening, the Chennai boy had 80 minutes left on the clock before 13. Ra2, an engine-recommended novelty.
Even though he hadn't built up an advantage, the engine showed the game as level. But Svane slowly gained territory as well as control of the centre of the board throughout the middlegame as his rook had access to the open d file. With a very proactive knight for company, he forced his opponent to be reactive, something that's not his style. Once they traded queens off the board, some parity was restored. But after 51. Kd3, the engines swung widely to the German's favour when the optimal move was 51. Kf1. With the pawns on the move, the Indian knew the game was up.
Some credit must also go to Svane, the 21-year-old who has a rating of over 2635. He's highly-rated within Germany and considers the Classical format to be his best.
Pragg, Erigaisi advance
Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa, though, remain in contention as they did what was necessary to advance to the fourth round. But it wasn't serene progress on a bad day for the seeds. Fourth seed, Anish Giri, lost. Likewise, eight seed, Nodirbek Abdusattorov. One player who remains in form is Vincent Keymer, who needs to finish in the top three places to advance to the Candidates. The German beat India's M Pranesh with the black pieces.
Select results (rd 3, game 2): Frederik Svane 1.5-0.5 Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi 1.5-0.5 Shamsiddin Vokhidov, R Praggnanandhaa 1.5-0.5 Robert Hovhannisyan, Alexander Donchenko 1.5-0.5 Anish Giri, Vincent Keymer 1.5-0.5 M Pranesh, Jose Martinez 2-0 Nodirbek Abdusatorov