In year of woe, Gukesh suffers another defeat, this time featuring a rare slip up with clock

Ever since he became the world champion 13 months ago, plenty has gone wrong for the youngest man on the throne in chess history. But this was a rare blunder of sorts: Gukesh made his 36th move ( 36… a4) and then grazed the clock with his fingers to focus on untangling himself from the knots he had tied himself into on the board. It was only about 45 seconds later that he realised that he had not actually pressed the clock hard enough to start his opponent’s time. In those 45 seconds, Gukesh had thrown three glances at his clock but hadn’t realised that his time was still ticking.

At that stage, Van Foreest was already a pawn up and had held the upper hand against his opponent since move 17. The only ally in this position Gukesh could have hoped for was time, because Van Foreest needed to make four moves in just over four minutes to reach the safety of the first time control, where both players would get 30 additional minutes. But now, Gukesh had allowed the Dutchman to think on his time for almost a minute.

Eventually, both players made it past the time control, but Gukesh resigned after 48 moves after dragging the game on for almost three hours from a losing position. It was a defeat that pushed the reigning world champion out of the world’s top 10 ranks, down to world no 13, one spot below his mentor, the semi-retired Viswanathan Anand, in the FIDE live ratings list. Gukesh has now lost 36 rating points from where he was after becoming world champion in December 2024.

Divya, Surya lose too

Gukesh was not the only Indian to suffer defeat on Friday: in the Challengers section, Divya Deshmukh lost to Chinese star Zhu Jiner while the veteran Surya Shekhar Ganguly was defeated by an international master Jachym Nemec. Only Aravindh Chitambaram managed to escape with a draw.

Divya’s defeat too came after she faced severe time pressure against Zhu, who is the flagbearer of China’s next generation of world beaters. While Divya has a 1-4 record in classical chess against the Chinese grandmaster, the one victory for the Indian teenager had come at the most important stage of all: the FIDE World Cup, where Divya had managed to win the title, thus earning herself a spot at the Women’s Candidates and becoming a grandmaster in one stroke.

But on Friday, just like Gukesh, Divya too never held an advantageous position in the game against a woman who she will face in the Women’s Candidates tournament in a month’s time.

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

Gukesh’s year of woe

It has been a frustrating start of the year for the teenager from Chennai, who suffered multiple setbacks at the Tata Steel chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee in January.

More than once, he had his opponents on the mat, such as in a six-hour-long marathon game against Javokhir Sindarov, before they had escaped to safety. He had also made uncharacteristic blunders, such as in the game against Nodirbek Abdusattorov, where he had given up a rook with a move that the Uzbek had called “unexplainable”.

Gukesh also suffered losses at Wijk aan Zee to Anish Giri and Matthias Bluebaum, two players who will be battling in the Candidates tournament next month to earn the right to challenge him in the world championship at the end of the year.

For Gukesh, 2024 was a career defining year: he won the ultra-competitive Candidates in the first time of asking, became the youngest world champion in history and, in between those two feats, led India to a barnstorming gold-medal winning campaign at the Chess Olympiad. For a short period of time, he even became the world no 3.

Then came the slump of 2025, where he did not win a single tournament. That form has bled into 2026.

For the youngest world champion in history, time is running out to find the reset button.

Interactive: How Gukesh lost to Van Foreest

All the moves from Gukesh’s loss to Van Forest: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 d6 7. c3 Be7 8. Re1 Na5 9. Bc2 c5 10. d4 cxd4 11. cxd4 Bg4 12. dxe5 Bxf3 13. Qxf3 dxe5 14. Nc3 O-O 15. Bg5 Nc6 16. Rad1 Nd4 17. Qg3 Qb8 18. Rxd4 exd4 19. e5 dxc3 20. Qh4 Nh5 21. Bxe7 g6 22. Bxf8 Qxf8 23. bxc3 Qc5 24. Qe4 Re8 25. Qe3 Rc8 26. e6 Qxe3 27. exf7+ Kxf7 28. Rxe3 Kf6 29. Bb3 a5 30. g3 Ng7 31. Rf3+ Ke5 32. Rf7 Nf5 33. Rb7 Rc5 34. f4+ Ke4 35. Kf2 Kd3 36. g4 a4 37. Bg8 Nd6 38. Rd7 Rc6 39. Bxh7 Kxc3 40. Bxg6 b4 41. h4 b3 42. axb3 a3 43. h5 Nb5 44. g5 a2 45. Rd1 Nd4 46. h6 Rc8 47. h7 Rh8 48. Be4