4 min readApr 9, 2026 11:01 PM IST
Cyprus and Menorca are separated by miles of Mediterranean Sea, but India’s top chess hopes share the same troubled waters. At the Candidates Tournament 2026, R Praggnanandhaa’s title shot is fading with every round. Hundreds of kilometres away at the Menorca Masters 2026, reigning World Champion D Gukesh suffered another brutal setback, losing to compatriot Nihal Sarin in the third round.
Gukesh arrived in Menorca as a two-time champion of the event, but his current form tells a very different story.
His first mistake against Nihal came as early as the ninth move. In the opening, instead of exchanging queens, he retreated his queen to c7. This allowed Nihal to activate his dark-squared bishop by moving it to f4, followed by an e4 pawn push. Slowly, Nihal began to exert pressure on Gukesh by gaining space in the centre.
Nihal, displaying killer instinct, then played bishop to g6, attacking Gukesh’s dark-squared bishop and eyeing a complete dismantling of his opponent’s defensive setup. Here, the youngest World Champion in the history of chess made another error. He played queen to d7, bringing it in to support his bishop instead of finding a more resilient defence.
Unperturbed, Nihal struck again with e5, attacking Gukesh’s knight on f6. The knight was forced to retreat. Nihal then captured Gukesh’s active light-squared bishop with his knight. This was the moment he had Gukesh firmly in his grip, with the engines favouring his position by +1.71.
Nihal knows exactly how resourceful Gukesh can be when cornered, and he is well aware of his compatriot’s defensive resilience. But once he had his old friend by the throat, he never let go.
He pushed his h-file pawn, looking to launch a synchronised attack on the kingside. Slowly, Gukesh lost the time advantage he had held for most of the game. By then, he had no space to manoeuvre against the mounting attack. His pieces were tied down, with no good squares available.
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On the 34th move, with no hope left, Gukesh resigned. It was his first loss of the event, following draws against Leinier Dominguez Perez and Ruslan Ponomariov in the first two rounds.
Nihal climbed to the sole lead with two points from three rounds, having beaten Pentala Harikrishna earlier and drawn with Perez.
The two Indians are on opposite paths. While the maestro from Thrissur is steadily rising in classical chess, improving his rating with each tournament, Gukesh is experiencing an unprecedented slump since reaching the sport’s summit as world champion.
This event is also expected to be one of the last few marquee tournaments where Gukesh will feature. Enduring a dire lean patch, the Chennai GM has decided to free up his schedule this year in the build-up to his title defence later in 2026. As part of that plan, he has opted out of the Grand Chess Tour.
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“My performance in the last few events has been quite disappointing, not just for me, but for all of you who support me,” he wrote on social media. “In order to find my best form, my team and I have decided that I should compete with slightly less intensity over the next few months. Consequently, we feel it is in my best interest to skip long events away from home to allow for more dedicated training time.”
It has now been well over 16 months, and Gukesh is yet to win a single event since his world championship victory over China’s Ding Liren.
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