Chess | 'I feel pity' - Garry Kasparov asserts Gukesh not ready for Blitz

Former world champion Garry Kasparov has said the win against Magnus Carlsen in the Rapid event of the ongoing SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz chess tournament in Zagreb had a huge psychological effect on the 19-year-old Gukesh.“I feel pity (at Gukesh’s results), because Gukesh played such a great rapid portion. I think the win over Magnus had a huge effect on Gukesh; psychologically, it’s such a big win," said Kasparov.

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Kasparov asserted that Gukesh isn’t yet ready for Blitz."I thought Gukesh’s games were feeble yesterday and today. Because it’s very fast, and he’s probably not ready to show his skills in blitz. In blitz, every gram of your energy that is being wasted on something else just has a very negative effect."The games he lost today, some of them were just terrible. Losing to Magnus I understand, anybody can lose the game. But even in this game, we didn’t see his tenacity.”“Something is wrong with Gukesh. Yesterday was not a great day. His games were very feeble. Yes, he beat So (Wesley), but his game against Giri was a sign of trouble for me,” Kasparov said.

“Magnus is a favourite already. He definitely has recovered after the disaster of Rapid.”

He started off with five losses in the blitz section before recovering a bit by drawing the sixth game, but he lost the seventh. Despite winning the eighth game, Gukesh eventually lost to Praggnanandhaa.Meanwhile, Carlsen scored a whopping 7.5 points from his nine games to come back in front. It was indeed an indication of things to come, since in the last edition, the Norwegian had won his last nine games to be crowned champion.Gukesh was at his prime in the rapid section, wherein he won as many as six games, including one against Carlsen, but the Indian was way below par in the blitz, which saw him losing six games on the opening day of the fastest version of the game.