At the Menorca Masters 2026, reigning world champion D Gukesh suffered defeat when he went down to compatriot Nihal Sarin in the third round.Gukesh arrived in Menorca as a two-time champion, but his current form paints a very different picture. His troubles started early against Nihal. As early as the ninth move, Gukesh made a questionable opening decision, withdrawing his queen to c7 instead of opting for a queen exchange. Nihal passed the initiative on this move. The Kerala-based Grandmaster quickly activated his dark-squared bishop with Bf4, followed by a move with the e4-pawn, gradually building central control and pressure.Nihal sensed the momentum and stepped up his attack with Bg6, targeting Gukesh’s bishops and destabilizing his defensive structure. Under pressure, Gukesh faltered again and played Qd7 in an attempt to hold on to the position. But Nihal responded with precision, e5 kicking out the knight on f6 before capturing Gukesh’s light-squared active bishop.At that point, the game was firmly tilted in Nihal’s favor, with the rating engines showing a significant advantage (+1.71).Nihal was fully aware of Gukesh’s resilience under pressure and left nothing to chance. Once in control, he tightened his grip. He advanced with his h-pawn and launched a coordinated king attack. Gradually, Gukesh’s position deteriorated, his pieces were tied up, space was limited, and counterplay was non-existent. On move 34, with no viable defense left, Gukesh resigned.All moves from the Gukesh vs Sarin match: 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Bf5 4. c4 e6 5. Nc3 c6 6. Nh4 Be4 7. f3 Bg6 8. Qb3 Qb6 9. c5 Qc7 10. Bf4 10. Bf4 Qd7 13. e5 Ng8 14. Nxg6 hxg6 15. OOO Bd8 16. h4 Ne7 17. Bh3 Nc8 18. f4 b6 19. Kb1 a5 20. Qc2 bxc5 21. dxc5 Ne74 Q23 Bc. 25. Ne2 Nb8 26. Nd4 Nd7 27. Bd3 a4 28. Rde1 Ra5 29. f5 Nf8 30. Rhf1 gxf5 31. gxf5 Rxh4 32. fxe6 Nxe6 33. Nxe6 fxe2 34.This marked his first loss of the tournament, following draws against Leinier Domínguez Pérez and Ruslan Ponomariov in the opening rounds.For Nihal, the win capped off a strong start. After earlier defeating Pentala Harikrishna and drawing with Domínguez Pérez, he surged into a sole lead with two points from three rounds. The contrasting trajectories of India’s young stars are hard to ignore now. While Nihal has been steadily rising in classical chess, improving his ranking and consistency, Gukesh is experiencing a rare slump after his ascent to the top as world champion.In fact, Menorca could be one of the last events Gukesh plays this year. The Chennai-based grandmaster has decided to scale back his schedule as he prepares to defend his title later in 2026. As part of this strategy, he has also pulled out of the Grand Chess Tour.
Overall results after the 5th round of the Menorca Masters (Photo: Chess.com)
