Fabiano Caruana on Gukesh’s form: ‘It’s concerning, but he’s still a top player regardless of few bad months’

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2 min readMar 4, 2026 08:16 PM IST

World champion D Gukesh contemplates his next move at the Prague International Chess Festival. (PHOTO: Petr Vrabec via Prague International Chess Festival)

World champion D Gukesh has experienced a slump in his form in 13 months since becoming the youngest world champion in chess history. At the year’s second classical event in Prague, Gukesh is currently winless after six games, losing three games and drawing the remaining three. Some of those defeats have come after uncharacteristic blunders while Gukesh has repeatedly found himself in time trouble in games.

Fabiano Caruana, who will be competing at the Candidates tournament in Cyprus later this month to earn a shot at challenging Gukesh in the World Chess Championship later in the year, believes that the 19-year-old’s slump in results is concerning. But he said he still would not read too much into the results for either Gukesh or the other two Indians (Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi).

“In particular for Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, and Arjun, I think they’ll be top players for many years or decades to come, so I don’t read too much into it. For Gukesh, it’s, of course, concerning because he does have this really important event at the end of the year (the World Chess Championship). He’s the only person in the world guaranteed to play in that event at the moment,” Caruana said in a conversation with Maurice Ashley during the American Cup 2026.

Indian Grandmasters Arjun Erigaisi, D. Gukesh and R. Praggnanandhaa. (PHOTO: FIDE/FILE)

“It can’t feel nice to be playing poorly, but I still consider him (Gukesh) a very top player regardless of a few bad months. Perhaps the last year has definitely not been great for him, but I don’t doubt his quality.”

When asked about all three of India’s prodigious generation experiencing a slump at the same time, Caruana said: “It’s a bit of a small sample size. It’s a short time period and they’re all very young. I think everyone’s thinking about Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, and Arjun Erigaisi, who had really great years. For example, Praggnanandhaa won a lot of tournaments in 2025. Arjun and Gukesh, in particular, were playing phenomenally in 2024, with Gukesh being the best player in the world that year.”

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