SerpApi.Org
World champion Gukesh Dommaraju's nightmare 2026 continued at the Chennai Grand Masters, as he fell to another loss in the penultimate round, going down to M Pranesh with the black pieces on Tuesday evening. Gukesh has now lost three games at this tournament, is last in the standings, and the doubts and questions surrounding his ability to retain his world title against Javokhir Sindarov later this year are only continuing to grow louder.
There's still time to turn things around, of course. Viswanathan Anand, who was in Chennai for the event, feels he can snap out of it. GM Srinath Narayanan, captain of the Indian team at the upcoming FIDE Olympiad, is similarly confident.
The facts, though, are stark. Gukesh is yet to win a game at this tournament, and that is a continuation of his struggles in classical chess in 2026. It is his fourth tournament this year, and none have gone to plan. He began the year finishing 10th at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee, where he posted only 6.5 points in 13 rounds. He then finished ninth at the Prague International Chess Festival, with just 3.5 points in 9 rounds. Then, he went to Norway Chess and finished last. Now, at this tournament, with a round to play, he sits last, with three losses and three draws in six rounds.
Post this tournament, Gukesh has just one tournament left to play before the World Championship match - the FIDE Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where he will represent India, as they look to defend the crown they won in Budapest in 2024.
Anand, speaking to ESPN.in, pointed to that Olympiad as the stage that Gukesh needs to brings his confidence back. Anand also said that the outside noise around his form has certainly affected the 20-year-old.
"Right now it feels like we're all beating him on the head with this," Anand said, "he's had a patch streak for a while, but he can snap out of it. So hopefully the Olympiad inspires him."
GM Srinath Narayanan, the captain of the Olympiad team, calls Gukesh's slump a matter of confidence. Srinath is now the man tasked with bringing that confidence back, both for India's sake at the Olympiad, and for Gukesh's own sake. He is confident that this slump isn't terminal, and that it needn't last much longer. Confidence turns with a flick of a switch, Srinath says, and it is only a matter of a result or two going his way.
That result or two could've come in the fifth and sixth rounds of this tournament, where Gukesh had completely winning positions in the middlegame against Arjun Erigaisi and Pranesh. In both cases, he went really low on time, though, and under that time pressure, he floundered. That time pressure too, is a result of a complete lack of confidence, Srinath argues.
"When you're down in confidence, you're constantly rechecking your moves, you're taking a lot longer to take a decision that you'd normally do much faster. That contributed to him being low on time and as a consequence, when he needed that time to make some critical decisions he just didn't have it," Srinath said.
Srinath also pointed to the fields at tournaments that Gukesh has played in as being unforgiving to bad form, and that the nature of the Olympiad as a tournament could be just what the world championship needs at this point in time.
"Olympiad in general is more like an open tournament, something which Gukesh hasn't played in a long time, but that was where he built his initial successes. So that could be the tournament where there is a shift in momentum," Srinath said.
Srinath is basing his confidence of Gukesh snapping out of this rut based on past experience. He points to the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, where Srinath was the captain of the team, and Gukesh had gone through what he termed a horrid run. His rating had dropped significantly, from more than 2750 to around 2730. But immediately after that, he went on a run of successful tournaments, including winning the 2023 Chennai Grand Masters, that culminated in him winning the FIDE Candidates and the World Championship in 2024.
"There was a massive spike in his level of play, so I do believe that conference can change like this," Srinath says, with a snap of his fingers.
Gukesh will be on the Indian team with R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin and Vidit Gujrathi. Nihal told ESPN on the sidelines of this Chennai Grand Masters that they share excellent camaraderie and team spirit, which can always do a world of good to a player's mindset.
"I think our team spirit is one of our biggest strengths," Nihal said.
One thing is clear: as it stands, in his current state, Gukesh is unlikely to defend his world title against Sindarov. Something needs to change, change quickly, and for the better. The starting point for that will be in the next month, when Srinath ramps up preparations for the Olympiad.
