Gukesh Dommaraju doesn’t win the way you might expect a teenage prodigy to win. There are no reckless piece sacrifices or 25-move knockouts as his calling card. Instead, Gukesh wins with patience, brutal calculation, and nerves of steel — a style that looks a lot more like a seasoned world champion than a kid. Here’s what actually makes him so hard to beat.
The headline: a patient “anaconda”
If you had to sum up Gukesh in one word, it would be relentless. He’s a positional grinder who accumulates tiny advantages — a slightly better pawn structure, a marginally more active piece — and then squeezes. Commentators frequently compare his slow, suffocating pressure to Anatoly Karpov’s famous “anaconda” style: nothing dramatic happens for a while, and then you realize you can’t breathe.
That’s a rare trait in a young player. Most improving players (and most prodigies) love sharp, forcing chess. Gukesh is comfortable in quiet positions where the winning plan is subtle, and he’s willing to play 60, 70, even 80 moves to bring the point home.
Superpower #1: deep calculation
Underneath the calm exterior is an elite calculating engine. Gukesh routinely finds long forcing sequences and holds messy, tactical positions together under time pressure. His childhood coach, GM Vishnu Prasanna, is well known for encouraging him to limit engine use during his formative years — pushing Gukesh to work out positions with his own head rather than leaning on a computer. The payoff shows: he trusts his calculation enough to reject “safe” draws and keep playing for a win.
Superpower #2: stubborn defense and stamina
Gukesh is also a superb defender. He hangs on in worse positions that many players would give up, and he keeps the game alive until his opponent cracks. His nerves and stamina in long games were the deciding factor in his 2024 World Championship match: the final game was heading for a routine draw when the pressure of a never-ending fight finally produced a mistake — and Gukesh pounced. You can read that whole story in his best games.
Superpower #3: he plays for a result
Magnus Carlsen has described Gukesh’s game as a “pure counter” — he lets opponents commit, absorbs the pressure, and then strikes back with very few mistakes of his own. Combine that with his refusal to take easy draws, and you get a player who squeezes water from stones. Even in symmetrical, “drawish” structures, Gukesh keeps probing.
Who does he play like?
Chess fans love comparing new stars to past legends, and with Gukesh two names come up again and again. The first is Anatoly Karpov, the former World Champion whose “anaconda” style — quiet, positional, slowly restricting the opponent until there’s no good move left — is the closest historical match for how Gukesh squeezes. The second is his fellow Chennai native and mentor Viswanathan Anand, whose influence shows less in a single stylistic trait and more in Gukesh’s professionalism, universal opening base, and calm under pressure. Gukesh isn’t a carbon copy of either — his defensive resilience and willingness to grind “dead equal” positions are very much his own — but those two reference points tell you a lot about what to expect when he sits down at the board.
An honest look: the post-title dip
No profile is complete without the harder chapters. After winning the crown in December 2024, Gukesh went through a mixed stretch in 2025 and early 2026 — his classical results were inconsistent, and he openly acknowledged the slump, saying he and his team would scale back his schedule to rebuild his form (as reported in mid-2026). That’s not unusual: reaching the summit young brings enormous pressure and a target on your back, and even the greatest players have off periods. It’s worth stating plainly rather than pretending the graph only ever goes up. The core strengths — the calculation, the defense, the temperament — don’t vanish; the question every champion faces is how to keep finding motivation and sharpness once the biggest goal is already achieved.
What that looks like in the opening
Gukesh’s opening choices match the style. As White he grew up on the Ruy Lopez and the Italian Game — classical 1.e4 openings where both sides develop naturally and the real fight is a long, maneuvering middlegame. That slow-build character is exactly where his patience pays off.
As Black he balances that patience with the Sicilian Najdorf, a sharper counter-attacking weapon — proof he can mix it up when the moment calls for it. See the whole repertoire in Gukesh’s openings.
Strengths at a glance
- Calculation: elite depth and accuracy, even in time trouble.
- Endgames: patient technical conversion of small edges.
- Defense: stubborn, resourceful, hard to finish off.
- Temperament: unusually calm for his age; refuses easy draws.
- Work ethic: famously hard-working, with deep opening preparation.
Is Gukesh a positional or a tactical player?
Both — but if forced to choose, he leans positional. His trademark is the slow squeeze and the technical endgame, not the speculative attack. That said, his calculation is sharp enough that he handles tactics comfortably; he simply prefers to win by outlasting you rather than out-gambling you.
How to learn from Gukesh’s style
You don’t need a 2700 rating to borrow Gukesh’s habits:
- Don’t rush the draw. Keep pieces on when the position still has life.
- Calculate for yourself. Try to solve positions before you check the engine.
- Value small edges. A better structure or a more active piece is worth playing for.
- Defend actively. Look for counterplay instead of passively waiting.
Ready to see it in action? Replay Gukesh’s best games, or return to the full Gukesh Dommaraju profile.
Written and fact-checked by the Chess Lab Academy Editorial Team · Facts verified against Wikipedia, his FIDE profile, and Chess.com, as of July 2026 · Last verified 2026-07-10 · How we verify content.