D Gukesh’s coach responds to criticism, dissects winless Freestyle Chess streak: ‘When you calculate so well…’

D Gukesh's coach answered to criticism that the Indian GM's intuition is weak and felt that the problem lies somewhere else.

D Gukesh’s winless run continued as he lost to Alireza Firouzja on Friday, and had to settle for eighth place at the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, in Wangels (Germany). In their first game on Thursday, Gukesh managed a sensational comeback to secure a draw against Firouzja, but then failed to back it up in their second game, and he ended up losing in 30 moves.

Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam: D Gukesh finished in eight spot.(AP)

Many fans have pointed out his weakness in shorter formats, and in Chess960. But many have also felt that he needs some time, or he could simply be preferring the FIDE World C’ship cycle more than the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. As reigning world champion, he is an automatic qualifier in all Grand Slam events.

Gukesh’s coach Grzegorz Gajewski was also present at Weissenhaus for the tournament. Speaking at the sidelines to ChessBase India, he revealed that Gukesh’s main focus is on classical chess, and there are a lot of aspects to improve on due to his young age. He also felt that Gukesh’s age needs him to put more importance on the classical format.

‘Not a matter of developing intuition’

There was also a point in the tournament when Hikaru Nakamura, who also beat Gukesh, claim to Chess.com that Gukesh’s main weakness is his intuition. So the Polish GM was asked on ChessBase India’s live stream about Gukesh’s intuition by a fan, to which he pointed out that that wasn’t a matter of concern, but it’s something else.

“I think it's not a matter of developing intuition, but rather fighting the habit of calculation. When you calculate so well, it becomes a habit, you can’t just make a move and say okay I am defending the pawn because immediately the opponent’s as well comes to your mind and you start calculating. He does it automatically, he is simply to good of a calculator to not do this. But of course, it is not that easy in 960. In 960, calculation can be very misleading because you have to be careful about which moves you are calculating,” he said.

“So, yes, he needs to improve his intuition. but by intuition I mean Chess960 intuition. Because many moves that intuitively seem fine in classical chess are just pure mistakes in 960.

“So for instance, today in the morning we are checking one of the positions and white has a queen on g1 and a rook on a1. So obviously the first two moves were g4 and a4. Followed by rook to a3. And then after the rook was attacked, I'm sorry, the queen was on h1. So white started with g4 and then he played a4 and then he went rook a3. And then black attacked the rook on a3. So the rook, of course, moved to f3, blocking up the queen.

“And is that intuitive? Because, I mean, for someone who spent a lot of time, maybe that's intuitive. But for us right now, it's completely random. So as I said, there is a lot of learning. I think it's the biggest challenge for 960. It's like we have no history here. There's no literature. Chess, normal chess had been developing for centuries. And here we need to fast track this, with engine. And that's, it's not that simple,” he added.

Gukesh’s poor form at Weissenhaus has been a concern for many fans, but if the Indian GM prefers the FIDE cycle more, then his Freestyle Chess performances should not be of concern. The next Freestyle Grand Slam will be in Paris and he hasn’t confirmed his participation yet, but he is an automatic qualifier too.