NEW DELHI: World champion D Gukesh is preparing to defend his title against Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov later this year and grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran believes the young Indian needs to sharpen some areas of his game to stay ahead. According to Sasikiran, Gukesh’s habit of creating very complicated positions makes him dangerous, but also often puts him under time pressure.“Sometimes Gukesh takes too many risks with his unconventional play creating chaos and imbalance… in a sense, he wants to let things get out of hand, it doesn’t matter if the position is in total chaos,” Sasikiran told PTI.“He is the champion of such a game, but he often gets into weather problems. So one thing I would advise him to focus on is speeding up his calculation, he definitely needs to speed it up, because you don’t want to constantly be in a scenario where your opponent is putting you in time trouble.”Another former five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand also emphasized that strong preparation and memory are key at the highest level. Gukesh has had mixed results since winning the world title, struggling in several major classic tournaments. Sasikiran said Gukesh should focus on putting his opponents in uncomfortable situations and study Sindar’s weaknesses closely. He warned that the challenger is extremely well prepared and relies heavily on memory and quick play.“From what I saw from Sindarov, all that stuff with the candidates, he also makes some complications, he prepared very deep for the candidates tournament. I mean very high level of chess, so this match for the world championship will be very difficult,” he explained.He added that Gukesh needs to improve his conversion of technical positions and avoid missing opportunities. However, the Chennai-based grandmaster feels that experience could work in the Indian’s favour.“But Gukesh has already been at that level, he has played a World Cup match before, so the experience of the match goes in Gukesh’s favour, but the challenger also carries the momentum,” he added.Sasikiran believes that Gukesh and his team have already narrowed down a few initial choices and will continue to prepare until the match begins.
