Becoming the youngest world champion in chess history almost put a target on 18-year-old Gukesh’s back. While opponents have been hungry to defeat him, the world started to track his results, every draw and each defeat being used to weigh — rather unfairly — his worth as a world champion. Right after becoming the world champion in Singapore, the teenager from Chennai almost won the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, before being thwarted by Arjun Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa in the end. Since then, Gukesh has experienced an uncharacteristic slump: he went through the Weissenhaus leg of the Freestyle Chess tournament without a win, before experiencing more woe in the Paris leg of the Freestyle event. And then, his results in freestyle started to poison his form in classical chess as well: at the recent Superbet Classic Romania event, Gukesh won just a single game out of nine (against Levon Aronian) while losing to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Alireza Firouzja and drawing with the six remaining opponents. Gukesh will experience another stern test in …