Gukesh must improve speed, technique: Sasikiran
World champion D Gukesh’s penchant for creating complex positions often leaves him vulnerable to time trouble, according to Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran, who believes the Indian must improve his technique, speed and defensive accuracy ahead of his title defence against Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov.
Gukesh is set to put his crown on the line against Sindarov, the winner of the 2026 Candidates Tournament, in the World Championship match provisionally scheduled from November 23 to December 17.
“Sometimes Gukesh takes too much risk by his unconventional play creating chaos and imbalance ... in a sense, he wants to let things go out of control, it does not matter if the position is completely in chaos,” Sasikiran told PTI.
“He is a champion of that kind of a game but he often gets into time trouble. So, one thing I’d advise him to concentrate on is speeding up his calculation, he definitely needs to speed up, because you don’t want to consistently find yourself in a scenario where your opponent is driving you into time trouble.
“To avoid time trouble, you have to get your house in order. Preparation will continue right up until you enter the match. There will be a lot to memorize, that’s undeniable, because some things simply cannot be played at that level without memory; memorizing things is necessary.”
Gukesh has experienced a mixed run of form following his historic world title. He has struggled in classical events like the Grand Swiss, World Cup last year and the recently-concluded Norway Chess. Sasikiran, who served as a second to five-time winner Viswanathan Anand during his World Championship matches against Magnus Carlsen in 2013 and 2014, believes Gukesh must identify and exploit the pressure points in his opponent’s game.
“My advice to him will be: the World Championship requires proper preparation. Cover a lot of areas and then make positions that are a little uncomfortable for your opponent,” said the Chennai-based Grandmaster.
“From what I have seen from Sindarov, all this candidate stuff, he is also making some complications, he had prepared very deeply for the Candidates tournament. I mean very high level of chess, so this world championship match is going to be very tough.”
Sasikiran described Sindarov as a player who depends on memory and speed. “Sindarov, I have seen, plays a solid set of openings and relies more on memory, specifically, speed; he plays very fast and relies more on his memory. He is having a slight bit of trouble when his opponent has a slightly better endgame,” the 45-year-old Indian said.
By contrast, Sasikiran said Gukesh’s technique in technical positions needed improvement.
“While Gukesh is known to let down a little bit in technical positions, technique is one area that definitely needs improvement. His technique has to be at a very high level, if he is to get an advantage from the opening, he needs to convert with very high accuracy.
“He cannot let this go... I think even in the Candidates, I saw that Gukesh missed some opportunities to convert technical positions, so that is one area he definitely has to work on,” he noted.
Sasikiran, however, said Gukesh’s experience of playing a world championship match could prove decisive. “But Gukesh has already been at that level, he has already played a world championship match, so match experience is in Gukesh’s favour, but the challenger also carries momentum.”
