World Champion D Gukesh Stunned By 12-Year-Old Prodigy After 'Fatal' Blunder
In a result that has sent shockwaves through the chess world, reigning world champion D Gukesh suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of 12-year-old Sergey Sklokin at the FIDE World Blitz Championship 2025.
In a result that has sent shockwaves through the chess world, reigning world champion D Gukesh suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of 12-year-old Sergey Sklokin at the FIDE World Blitz Championship 2025. The high-stakes clash in Doha saw the teenage Indian grandmaster succumb to a costly blunder under severe time pressure, proving that in the lightning-fast world of blitz chess, even the greatest can falter. Despite his world title, Gukesh found himself outmanoeuvred by the young FIDE Master in a tense third-round encounter.
12-year-old FM Sergey Skolkin takes down World Champion D Gukesh in World Blitz Championship
— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) December 29, 2025
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Edit: Tushar Damor
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The match reached its breaking point on move 70. Playing with the black pieces, Gukesh was down a pawn and racing against the clock with just eight seconds left. His opponent, the Russian prodigy Sklokin, offered a rook exchange, a move that likely would have steered the game toward a draw. However, Gukesh, known for his aggressive "play-to-win" spirit, declined the trade and moved his rook to f4.
The gamble backfired almost instantly. Within moves, Gukesh lost his bishop and his final pawn. Facing an impossible position, the world champion was forced to resign just ten moves later. Commentators described the move as the "blunder of the round." Grandmaster Maurice Ashley noted that while Gukesh's fighting spirit is his greatest strength in classical chess, his refusal to settle for a draw proved fatal in this format. He said: “This blunder, we can all agree, was pretty bad,” said Ashley before going on to explain: “We know Gukesh is a tremendous fighter and he hates draws. Literally hates them and will do crazy things to avoid them. But this was a little bit too much. Obviously it was time to trade rooks. He was the one who was down a pawn! He should be happy to trade rooks and go for the draw-ish position. It's perfect (for him) because he's not going to lose! But he's playing for what? Unbelievable! That was absolutely insane. I was not expecting this from a world champion for sure. Gukesh's attitude is always that he can get a victory. Sometimes it costs him!”
Before the event started, Gukesh had spoken about how he did not have too many expectations off himself at the event.
“I think, for me, playing well in any format is quite important and I have been taking rapid and blitz a bit more seriously this year. That being said, I think rapid and blitz events have been slightly (of a) less priority than classical events for me,” said Gukesh, 19, during the pre-tournament media interaction, where five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen was also in attendance.
The defeat highlights the narrow margins of blitz chess, where Sklokin's 2400 rating stood no match for Gukesh's 2628 on paper, but triumphed on the board. While Gukesh has maintained that speed chess is not his primary focus compared to the classical format, this loss to a 12-year-old serves as a rare blemish in his otherwise historic year. For Sergey Sklokin, however, it is a career-defining moment that marks the arrival of a new prodigy.