‘Gukesh is an incredibly fighting player. I think it’s adorable’: Caruana’s rare praise for world champion amid horror form

One of the world’s best chess players and world No 3 Fabiano Caruana has hailed world champion D Gukesh’s “fighting” spirit as the Indian Grandmaster is experiencing one of the worst phases in his career. Gukesh, who became the youngest world chess champion of all time in December 2024 at 18, suffered historic consecutive defeats in the ongoing FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 a few days back and is nowhere close to the title race.

On Saturday in Round 9, the 19-year-old Gukesh from Chennai squandered multiple chances as he settled for a draw against Armenian Robert Hovhannisyan. So far, he has won just two matches in nine rounds. The worst came in Rounds 5,6 and 7 as he lost three consecutive matches against players having at least 100 Elo points less than him.

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This is the first time that a reigning world chess champion has lost three back-to-back matches against players who are at least 100 Elo behind. Gukesh’s defeat came against USA’s Abhimanyu Mishra, Greece’s Nikolas Theodorou and Turkish prodigy Ediz Gurel, respectively.

Gukesh was also held to a draw by compatriot Divya Deshmukh, who recently became a Grandmaster, in Round 8 after a match that lasted six hours and 103 moves.

Caruana praises Gukesh’s fighting spirit

Nonetheless, Caruana has sent a message of support to Gukesh amid the ongoing troubles, as he said that Gukesh is a player who never likes to give up and that this quality of his is very “adorable”.

“Whatever you say about Gukesh, he is an incredibly fighting player. He fights, and I think it’s adorable. He fights against anyone to the bitter end, but objectivity is very important as well,” Caruana said on his C-Squared as he analysed the Indian GM’s loss to Mishra.

While analysing the Gukesh vs Mishra game, Caruana pointed out multiple mistakes that the Indian world chess champion made in the match as he praised Mishra, the world’s youngest ever Grandmaster, for giving a much-needed boost to his career after tapering away a bit.

“Gukesh is the world champion, and he’s playing in the FIDE Grand Swiss even if he doesn’t need to qualify for the Candidates, obviously,” Caruana said. “So he’s playing just as he would any other event. And he started well, but now he’s struggling a bit. He just lost two games to one very young and relatively young (players). Both strong Grandmasters, of course.”

“So, the first game we look at is against Abhimanyu Mishra…it was a huge moment for him. It’s almost a bit strange that he’s only 16. Two years ago, I played him at the US Championships, and he was there. He was also there a year ago, but two years ago, he had a very good US Championship and he was about 2620 or so. To think that at that time he was 14 is kind of bizarre. He was so good. He had maybe a bit of a plateau, but these things also happen. Progress is not always linear.”