India, Feb. 23 -- Reigning world champion D Gukesh just lived through an anomaly of a week - a rare, winless run at a tournament earlier this month. Fischer Random, or Freestyle Chess, as packaged in its latest glitzy avatar, isn't a format the Indian teen prepared for and he finished eighth in a field of 10 participants in Weissenhaus, Germany. He is scheduled to play the Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in April.

The conundrum Gukesh and his team are grappling with though is how much time the 18-year-old should devote to the Fischer Random format and whether it will adversely affect his classical chess.

Fischer Random, where starting positions of the back rank pieces are randomised to minimise opening theory, has seen ...