There is no mincing words from Gukesh: he hasn’t been up to the mark of a sitting champion of late and the criticism is only right. The 19-year-old has put accountability ahead of any excuses as he gets set for a high-stakes encounter with Javokhir Sindarov this year.
You can see the reset in action when he takes on Vincent Keymer to open his Norway Chess run. It’s a kind of public test. And for one who is typically in his own world, he has let it be known that some of the jabs from old-timers are hard to brush off.
A champion who accepts the heat
It was an internal reckoning, not an opponent, that made him put it out there. ‘I have not been performing well in the last 18 months,’ Gukesh will tell you, and if ex-champions want to have their say, so be it.
The eyes have been on him, with everyone from Magnus Carlsen to Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov making their points. Gukesh doesn’t flinch at it. Let them have their say; he has a job to do and will do it to the best of his ability.
Results that raised the questions
If you look at the figures, the discussion is easy to understand. He came in sixth at the Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland on the Grand Chess Tour – a bit of a step up in tempo, but not what you’d call a podium showing.
The classical side of things has been no kinder. A 10th at Tata Steel and a ninth in Prague are not the kind of returns you expect from a world champion, and rivals will be quick to make hay of it.
Scheduling shake-up before title defence
So he has been methodical about it. Gukesh is done with the classical leg of the Grand Chess Tour and is paring down his calendar before the big match. For the time being, it’s just Norway and the Olympiad, with a few other possibilities left in the wings for now.
Sindarov is in Oslo too, and he’ll be watching every move. As for where they might face off for the World Championship, Gukesh is fine with any venue. An Indian one would be ‘supercool’ in his view, even with the pressure that comes with it.
His plan for the near future is simple enough:
– Norway and the Olympiad are a given
– No more of the classical Grand Chess Tour
– Some things are up in the air
Carlsen counters on defending a crown
Gukesh sees it in black and white: you don’t keep a title the way you win your first. There is a certain ‘don’t want to lose’ feeling that can get in the way, and the only fix is to put in some good chess.
Not according to Carlsen. At the same presser, he made the case for the opposite: the challenger has to go through the wringer in the Candidates, while the champion has one match to worry about. He’s in town for his eighth Norway title and says he’ll be following the world championship ‘as a fan’.
Emotion and the viral moment
Then there is the incident that put chess in the headlines. After Gukesh had his way with him at Norway 2025, Carlsen’s table-slam made for some viral content. Gukesh is all for it.
‘My job is to play chess,’ he says. A little show of feeling can bring in new eyes to a game that is usually so staid. In a year like this, being able to own the story is as good as anything you can come up with over the board.
