Hikaru Nakamura explains Gukesh’s ‘biggest weakness’ as Indian GM struggles in Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour

World No.3 Hikaru Nakamura feels D Gukesh’s poor “intuition” and inability to work out calculations under time pressure has resulted in a wretched form for the world champion in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 Stage 1 in Weissenhaus, Germany. On Wednesday, Nakamura defeated Gukesh in the 5-8 classification playoff match as the Indian Grandmaster continued to be winless in the tournament.

Gukesh and Nakamura played out two draws in the classification playoff match followed by another draw in the first rapid tie-breaker. Nakamura won the second rapid tie-breaker to defeat the 18-year-old India GM Gukesh.

The Chennai chess star has not won a single match in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 Stage 1, having lost twice in the round-robin stage and both games in the quarter-finals.

More from Sports

Hikaru Nakamura drops major hint on future in Classical chess: 'If I don’t play well in Norway or the World Cup...' Freestyle Chess Tour: Struggling Gukesh loses to Nakamura; Carlsen eliminated by Keymer

Nakamura explains Gukesh’s biggest weaknesses

One of the best players in the freestyle chess format, Nakamura, reflected on Gukesh’s biggest weaknesses. “I would say probably the biggest weakness Gukesh currently has is that when he gets low on time, I don’t think his intuition is that great, and he simply couldn’t work through the calculations,” Nakamura told Chess.com after beating Gukesh.

Nakamura was also surprised by Gukesh consistently not discussing strategies with fellow GMs before his games in the Grand Slam Tour. The tournament rules allow players of the same colour pieces to discuss strategies before their matches but Gukesh has often opted to plan his strategies alone on the board. Unlike Gukesh, we have seen world No.1 Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Javokhir Sindarov and Nakamura discuss possible openings and strategies among themselves.

Nakamura said Gukesh not analysing moves with fellow chess players has been a disadvantage for the Indian Grandmaster.

“I think it can only be to your disadvantage if you don’t analyze together. I don’t know why Gukesh doesn’t analyze with Fabiano. To me, that’s just insane. Whether I’m analyzing with Fabiano, or even if I’m not, I look at his game, and I just try to follow what he does. You know, I just believe in Fabiano, so it’s much easier if you can do that,” Nakamura said.

Having lost to Nakamura, Gukesh will now compete for the seventh spot against Alireza Firouzja.