World champion D. Gukesh is crumbling under the weight of expectations and needs to shut out the noise to regain his form ahead of his title defence, said American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura

The FIDE World Championship Match 2026 between reigning champion Gukesh D and challenger Javokhir Sindarov will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from November 25 to December 15.

World champion D Gukesh, the in-form R Praggnanandhaa and Candidates winner R Vaishali headline a star-studded Indian team for the FIDE Chess Olympiad to be played from September 16 to 27 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

GM M Pranesh inflicted a second straight loss on world champion D Gukesh while GM Nihal Sarin defeated compatriot Arjun Erigaisi in the penultimate round of the Chennai Grand Masters on Tuesday.

French Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja inflicted a shock defeat on reigning world champion D Gukesh to emerge as the sole leader after the second round of the Chennai Grand Masters 2026 in Chennai on Friday.

Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa bounced back with a decent effort on the final day to finish tied third in the Croatian leg of the Grand chess tour on Monday.

D Gukesh might have taken a sabbatical from classical chess but his commitment to major events remains intact and he will be up against some of the world's best players in the Zagreb Rapid and Blitz Tournament.

Legendary Viswanathan Anand hailed R Praggnanandhaa's highly competitive style of play, and urged the struggling world champion D Gukesh to take a leaf out of the book of newly-crowned Norway Chess champion to script a turnaround.

D Gukesh's prolonged form slump might be a talking point in the chess world right now but his world championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov sees no obvious weakness in the Indian's game.

Indians struck back in style in Round 7 as D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa delivered crucial victories while Divya Deshmukh bounced back from her previous-round setback to beat compatriot Koneru Humpy.