‘Don’t think D Gukesh’s intuition is that great’: Nakamura tears into India No. 1, points out ‘insane’ disadvantage

D Gukesh’s miserable form in Fischer Random chess continued and he crumbled under time pressure on Wednesday, at the first leg of the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour at Weissenhaus in Wangels (Germany). The reigning World Champion lost to Hikaru Nakamura in the 5-8 classification playoff match. The World No. 3 ended up winning 1.5-0.5 in the rapid tiebreaker round.

It wasn’t an easy showdown for both GMs, as they have been in poor form lately. In the rapid tiebreak round, both Grandmasters drew the first game with Nakamura playing with the white pieces. Then the veteran dealt the decisive blow to finally get his win in the next game, this time with black pieces.

Hikaru Nakamura points out D Gukesh’s ‘biggest weakness’

Speaking to Chess.com, Nakamura called out Gukesh’s weakness in managing time, and also made some remarks on his ‘intuition’ and ‘calculations’.

“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,” he said.

The Weissenhaus Grand Slam event has seen all participants huddle and discuss with each other before and between games, except for Gukesh. The India No. 1 has been seen analysing games alone, and prefers not to join others before a game. Nakamura felt even that is a huge ‘disadvantage’ for Gukesh, as he doesn’t analyse with someone like Fabiano Caruana, who beat him in the quarter-finals with ease.

“I think it can only be to your disadvantage if you don’t analyze together. I don’t know why Gukesh doesn’t analyze with Fabiano. To me, that’s just insane. Whether I’m analyzing 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,” he added.

Gukesh will now hope to bounce back to winning ways and get his first Freestyle Grand Slam Tour win, as he takes on Alireza Firouzja in the playoff for seventh position. Both GMs met during the round-robin stage, with Firouzja winning easily.