Gukesh and the missing aura of a world champion

FIDE World Cup: The young champ hasn't stamped his authority in the world and it’s time he began doing it

- Ashish Magotra

So much of a lvl challenge is about the intangible thing we all know as aura. There comes a moment in the course of nearly every professional era in sport when one person rises above everyone else. They are unmistakably better. It’s the way they play, the way they carry themselves, and these individuals usually go on to dominate an era. They go on to become champions.

But, of late, in the chess world, the champion hasn't played like one. D Gukesh, who became the Classical World Champion on December 12, 2024 at the age of 18 years 6 months and 24 days, has been shaky. He hasn’t stamped his authority on the chess world as Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov or even Anatoly Karpov did.

To be fair, he has tried. But a closer look at his results since October 2024 reveals that he has had few positives to fall back on. According to Fide, he had a great month in October 2024, when he gained 30.1 Elo rating points. But since then, he has had just two positive months (March 2025, 10.2 and July 2025, 0.4). He has lost points in all the other months with a low point of -14.5 in October 2025.