Fabiano Caruana has come to D Gukesh’s defence amid the reigning world champions’s slump, stating that the 19-year-old Indian chess star remains a “top players regardless of few bad months”. Gukesh had made history in 2024 by becoming the youngest winner at the Candidates Tournament as well as the youngest world champion of all time, and had narrowly missed out on winning the prestigious Tata Steel Chess tournament in early 2025.

The Indian GM’s form, however, has taken a major hit since then, particularly in the second half of 2025. Gukesh had suffered a hat-trick of defeats at the FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand, and had failed to impress at the FIDE World Cup that took place in Goa. And in the ongoing Prague Chess Festival Masters,
Gukesh is yet to register a win after seven rounds, suffering three defeats and collecting four draws so far.

‘I don’t read too much into it’

World No 3 Caruana accepts the fact that Gukesh’s sudden decline in form, as well as that of fellow Indian chess stars R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi is worrying, but doesn’t read too much into it.

“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,” Caruana said in a conversation with Maurice Ashley on the sidelines of the American Cup.

“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,” added the Italian-American GM, who will be
competing at the upcoming Candidates Tournament alongside ‘Pragg’ to earn a shot at challenging Gukesh for his world title.