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Gukesh makes 'shockingly' rare appearance in Titled Tuesday online chess event, loses 3 matches to finish 18th
D Gukesh won eight of the 11 games he played in the Titled Tuesday event, finishing 18th.
Gukesh Dommaraju, the youngest world chess champion in history, made a rare appearance in the popular online tournament Titled Tuesday. Not particularly known for his play in blitz formats, the 18-year-old surprised fans by entering the early edition of the event. He had eight wins out of 11 games and finished in 18th place.
Hikaru Nakamura went on to win the event, marking his record 105th Titled Tuesday title.
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The online Titled Tuesday tournament is hosted weekly by Chess.com, offering a $1,000 prize for the winner. Played in a Swiss format with 3 minutes per player and a 1-second increment per move, the event regularly features elite players like Magnus Carlsen and Nakamura. However, Gukesh is rarely among them, often citing his preference for classical over-the-board play and acknowledging blitz as a format less suited to his style.
“He has played this event before, but it’s very rare to see him play,” Nakamura said in a video recap on his YouTube channel. “Rather shockingly, one of the rare occurrences is seeing current world chess champion Gukesh actually playing in a Titled Tuesday event.”
Gukesh was eliminated after suffering three losses, to IM LR Srihari, Parham Maghsoodloo, and Nakamura himself. However, he did register wins over strong players like Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Alexey Sarana, the latter having assisted him as a second during his world championship triumph.
“When I played bishop to f8 (18…Bf8), I was basically asking Gukesh what he was going to do? Here Gukesh spends almost one minute (in a three-minute game) before playing bishop to b4 (19.b4),” Nakamura explained while analysing their game. “This really highlights the differences between players like Gukesh, who are more about pure calculation, as compared to more intuitive platters like myself or Praggnanandhaa or Hans Niemann. There was nothing wrong with the move but specifically because he spends one minute on the clock, he’s now on the backfoot, he’s down by 30 seconds.”
Gukesh's first Titled Tuesday in months
This was Gukesh’s first Titled Tuesday appearance in months. The last time he participated, he narrowly missed the title due to tiebreaks, losing to Javokhir Sindarov.
The reigning world champion last competed over the board at the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Croatia tournament, where he finished third after 18 rounds in three days — managing just four wins, further reinforcing his struggles with the blitz format. His methodical, deeply calculated approach is better suited to classical formats, making this week’s appearance all the more unexpected.
