 "World No 5 Nodirbek Abdusattorov has backed reigning world champion D Gukesh to regain his form ahead of his title defence. Image credit: Norway Chess/Tata Steel Chess")
Gukesh Dommaraju has gone through an inexplicable loss of form shortly after becoming the youngest world champion in the history of chess. The Indian teenager had a red-hot run in 2024, in which he made history by becoming the youngest player to win the Fide Candidates in addition to the World Championship, and had also starred in India’s historic Chess Olympiad campaign that year.
Gukesh has had his moments since being crowned world champion – from finishing runner-up at the Tata Steel Chess to finally beating Magnus Carlsen, not once but twice in as many meetings, all of which occurred in 2025.
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At the same time, the 19-year-old chess star from Chennai gradually began to lose his touch, even in Classical chess – suffering a hat-trick of defeats at the Grand Swiss and bowing out of the Fide World Cup in Goa in the third round. In his most recent appearances, the Indian Grandmaster had finished 10th out of 14 players at the Tata Steel Chess and finished joint-last at the Prague Masters, where he had not registered a win until the ninth and final round.
Gukesh is asking too much from himself, feels Nodirbek
When asked about the reigning world champion’s lack of strong performances over the last one year, Uzbekistani GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov felt it was simply a case of “self-imposed pressure”.
“He will come back from his recent form. But I think the problem for Gukesh is self-imposed pressure, I would say, because he’s asking too much from himself. He thinks he has to win every tournament, he has to show best, high-quality chess in every tournament,” world No 5 Nodirbek said on the Chess with Mustreader podcast.
“I don’t think he has any chess problems or some other problems. It’s just self-imposed pressure. Otherwise he’s a great player. If you look at his performance in Candidates, in Olympiad, in some other tournaments, he played phenomenal chess,” he added.
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Gukesh will be under pressure to regain his form in time for his title defence with the World Championship set to take place later this year. He will learn about his challenger at the Candidates tournament that gets underway in Cyprus on Saturday.