Gukesh Hits His Stride With Back-To

The trials and tribulations of being World Champion at an Olympiad are on full display. But two days can make quite a difference.

GM Gukesh D, the current chess king, briefly dropped below the 2700 rating barrier after being held by 2384-rated IM Satria Duta Cahaya in Round 2 of the 2026 Chess Olympiad in Samarkand.

Now he is back above it—and beginning to look considerably more like himself.

Gukesh followed his Round 3 victory over Italian GM Sabino Brunello by beating former World Championship challenger GM Alexei Shirov on Saturday as defending champions India defeated Spain 3-1.