India, April 25 -- The pressure has been mounting on D Gukesh after another poor Freestyle Chess showing at the the Paris Grand Slam event, as he failed to even qualify for the knockouts. It comes after his winless run in Weissenhaus, where he managed to finish in eighth place and was at least in the knockouts. The 18-year-old is the reigning World Chess Champion after beating Ding Liren in Singapore last year, and is also the youngest in history to bag the title.

But the manner of his victory over Liren saw Gukesh receive criticism from the likes of Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik, who accused him of lacking quality.

But Gukesh silenced his critics with a strong showing at the Tata Masters in Wijk aan Zee, finishing in second posit...