Rising under pressure

With these performances, Gukesh has earned the tag of being a "Big Match Player". Let us look at how he handled a pressure situation as Black against his compatriot R. Praggnanandhaa in the second round of the Candidates tournament 2024:

- Soumya Swaminathan

In the opening phase of this game, Pragg managed to catch Gukesh in his preparation, but Gukesh's replies were logical and positionally sound so not much damage has been done to Black's position yet. White has bravely sacrificed 2 central pawns to send Black's pieces on the back foot and create attacking chances in the centre. He may push his h pawn ahead by 2 squares to create attacking chances on the Kingside with h4, Ng5, Qh5 etc.

Exactly at this moment, White sacrifices a 3rd pawn on e6! If Black accepts the pawn, White may reply Nd4 so that for e5, white plays Ne6 - a Fork! This game followed the same time control of the upcoming world championship match. By now, Pragg had used up only 10 minutes of his time, while Gukesh had already used up 50 minutes! With a time difference of 40 minutes, Gukesh took a further 17 minutes here to reply. Such a huge time deficit tends to pressurise the player and nervousness begins to set in. This can lead to mistakes or hasty decisions.

Here onwards the game takes an unusual turn that gives us an insight into Gukesh's approach.