New Delhi: World champion D Gukesh is gearing up to defend his title against Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov later this year and grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran feels the young Indian needs to improve certain aspects of his game to stay ahead. According to Sasikiran, Gukesh’s habit of creating highly complex situations made him dangerous, but it also often led to time pressure.“Sometimes, Gukesh takes too many risks because his unconventional style of play creates chaos… In a sense, he wants things to get out of control and it doesn’t matter even if the situation is completely chaotic,” Sasikiran told PTI.“He’s a champion in these types of games, but he often has timing issues. So, one of the things I would recommend him to focus on is speeding up the calculations, which he definitely needs to speed up because you don’t want to be in a situation where your opponent is putting you in time trouble all the time. “Former second-place finisher five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand also emphasized that strong preparation and memory are crucial at the highest level. Since winning the world title, Gukesh has had mixed results, struggling in several major Classics events. Sasikiran said Gukesh should focus on putting his opponents in uncomfortable situations and carefully study Zindarov’s weaknesses. He warned that challengers are very well prepared and rely heavily on memory and fast racing.“From what I’ve seen from Zindarov, all this candidate stuff, he also creates some complications, he prepares very deeply for the Candidates Championship. I mean the level of chess is very high, so this world championship is going to be very tough,” he explained.He added that Gukesh must improve his switching of technical positions to avoid missing opportunities. However, the Chennai-based guru feels that experience may work in the Indian’s favour.“But Gukesh has already reached this level, he has already fought one world championship match, so the experience is in Gukesh’s favour, but the challenger is also motivated,” he added.Sasikiran believes Gukesh and his team have narrowed down some opening options and will continue to prepare till the start of the match.
