Nakamura points out Gukesh’s ‘biggest weakness’

News Update

Tezzbuzz|14-02-2025

World champion D Gukesh has failed to win a single game in the ongoing Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 Stage 1 and world No. 3 Hikaru Nakamura has pointed out the Indian Grandmaster’s “biggest weakness” for the lack of success in Fischer Random chess.

At the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam in Weissenhaus, Germany, Gukesh lost to Nakamura in the second game of the tie-breaker of the 5-8 place play-off on Wednesday (February 12) after gaining a good advantage with his white pieces.

Also read: Praggnanandhaa Beats Gukesh In Tiebreaker to Clinch Tata Chess Title

Gukesh made one tactical error and Nakamura pounced on it to reach the fifth-place play-off with Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan. He will fight it out against Alireza Firouzja of France.

What Nakamura said

Talking about Gukesh’s game, Nakamura said the Indian GM’s “intuition” is not good when it comes to managing time.

“I would say probably the biggest weakness Gukesh currently has is that when he gets low on time, I don’t think his intuition is that great, and he simply couldn’t work through the calculations,” Nakamura told Chess.com.

GuKoSh's 'Disadvantage'

Nakamura, who is one of the best players in freestyle chess, said it was a “disadvantage” for Gukesh not to discuss strategies with fellow players during the Grand Slam Tour. However, other players have been together discussing before and between games, which the rules permit.

“I think it can only be to your disadvantage if you don’t analyse together. I don’t know why Gukesh doesn’t analyse with Fabiano. To me, that’s just insane. Whether I’m analysing with Fabiano, or even if I’m not, I look at his game, and I just try to follow what he does. You know, I just believe in Fabiano, so it’s much easier if you can do that,” Nakamura said.

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