GM Krishnan Sasikiran, who was part of Viswanathan Anand’s team during his World Championship matches against Magnus Carlsen in 2013 and 2014, said preparation would be crucial for D Gukesh. | Photo Credit: Arvind Aaron

World champion D. Gukesh must improve his technique, speed and defensive accuracy ahead of his title defence against Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov, Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran said.

Gukesh is set to defend his crown against Sindarov, who won the 2026 Candidates Tournament, in the World Championship match provisionally scheduled from November 23 to December 17.

“Sometimes Gukesh takes too much risk by his unconventional play, creating chaos and imbalance. In a sense, he wants to let things go out of control. It does not matter if the position is completely in chaos,” Sasikiran told PTI.

“He is a champion of that kind of a game, but he often gets into time trouble. One thing I would advise him to concentrate on is speeding up his calculation. He definitely needs to speed up because you do not want to consistently find yourself in a scenario where your opponent is driving you into time trouble.”

Sasikiran, who was part of five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand’s team during his World Championship matches against Magnus Carlsen in 2013 and 2014, said preparation would be crucial for Gukesh.

“To avoid time trouble, you have to get your house in order. Preparation will continue right up until you enter the match. There will be a lot to memorise, that is undeniable, because some things simply cannot be played at that level without memory,” he said.

Gukesh has had a mixed run since becoming world champion. He struggled in classical events such as the Grand Swiss, the World Cup last year and the recently concluded Norway Chess.

Sasikiran said the 20-year-old must identify areas where Sindarov can be put under pressure.

“My advice to him will be: the World Championship requires proper preparation. Cover a lot of areas and then make positions that are a little uncomfortable for your opponent,” he said.

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“From what I have seen from Sindarov, he also creates complications. He had prepared very deeply for the Candidates Tournament. It was a very high level of chess, so this World Championship match is going to be very tough.”

Sasikiran described Sindarov as a player who relies on a solid opening base, memory and speed.

“Sindarov plays a solid set of openings and relies more on memory, specifically speed. He plays very fast and relies more on his memory. He has a slight bit of trouble when his opponent has a slightly better endgame,” he said.

By contrast, Sasikiran added Gukesh needed to sharpen his handling of technical positions.

“Technique is one area that definitely needs improvement. If he is to get an advantage from the opening, he needs to convert with very high accuracy,” Sasikiran said.

“He cannot let this go. Even in the Candidates, I saw that Gukesh missed some opportunities to convert technical positions, so that is one area he definitely has to work on.”

Sasikiran, however, said Gukesh’s experience of already having played a World Championship match could prove important.

“Match experience is in Gukesh’s favour, but the challenger also carries momentum. For Gukesh, I would say analyse Sindarov and his games and make a list of where he has small discomforts,” he said.

“At that level, the area where you can make the person uncomfortable is very, very small.”

Sasikiran said Gukesh’s team would likely have already narrowed down the main opening variations for the match.

“He would have already decided on two or three main openings he will be playing, and his seconds would have already been working on them. Of course, the match preparation will continue until the very start of the match,” he said.

Published on Jun 22, 2026