American GM Fabiano Caruana feels that D Gukesh’s slump in form is concerning. The 19-year-old has been in poor form since becoming the world champion in December 2024. The Indian GM is currently winless after six games in Prague, having lost three and drawn the remaining three.
Some of his defeats have been uncharacteristic of him, reflected by huge late blunders.
Speaking to Maurice Ashley during the American Cup 2026, Caruana said, “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.”
“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.”
It’s not just Gukesh, who is in poor form. His countrymen, R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi, have also been struggling.
“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 many tournaments in 2025. Arjun and Gukesh, in particular, were playing phenomenally in 2024, with Gukesh being the best player in the world that year,” Caruana added.
Erigaisi missed out on qualifying for the 2026 Candidates. The tournament winner will challenge Gukesh for the World C’ship title. The participants at the upcoming Candidates are Caruana (2024 FIDE Circuit winner), Anish Giri and Matthias Blubaum (top-two finishers of the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss), Javohik Sindarov, Wei Yi and Andrey Esipenko (top-three finishers of the 2025 World Cup), Praggnanandhaa (2025 FIDE Circuit winner), and Hikaru Nakamura (highest average rating from August 2025 to January 2026).