Don’t have lots of expectations: Gukesh

Doha: World champion D. Gukesh says that classical chess will continue to be his bread and butter, and that he doesn’t have “a lot of expectations” from the season-ending star-studded FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships, beginning here on Friday.

Gukesh is coming into the end-of-season million-euro prize-money tournament following an underwhelming season, which also included an early exit from the FIDE World Cup in Goa recently, and the champion said he was here to experiment, have some fun and enjoy the tournament.

“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 Magnus Carlsen was also

in attendance.