Kolkata Rapid and Blitz chess: D Gukesh pulls out of year’s first event | Chess News

D Gukesh (Pic credit: FIDE)

KOLKATA: In a major blow to the Kolkata Rapid and Blitz chess tournament, D Gukesh pulled out of the Jan 7-11 meet citing ‘personal reasons’.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“Unfortunately I had to skip this year and will be missing the fun but sure to be back for its future events and wish this year event a great success!” Gukesh posted on his ‘X’ handle.

Although the organisers named another rising star Nihal Sarin as Gukesh’s replacement, the youngster’s absence will take some shine off the tournament which was supposed to see a battle between fivetime World champion Viswanathan Anand and the reigning World champion.Gukesh’s absence, however, raised some questions about whether the 19-year-old has decided on some course correction in the New Year after a not-so-good last year. With the Chennai boy scheduled to defend his World title later this year, perhaps Gukesh and his team have decided to go a bit slow this time.