Mumbai, Nov. 9 -- At this time last year, D Gukesh was preparing for the biggest tournament of his young career - the World Chess Championship. And then, at 18, he became the youngest-ever player to be crowned world champion. In the year that has followed, the 19-year-old's stock has risen, even if the results have not quite gone his way. On Saturday, at the Chess World Cup in Goa, Gukesh had to take another defeat in his stride. On the second day of Round 3, despite the advantage of playing with white pieces and facing an opponent who was under time pressure, Gukesh lost against Frederik Svane. On Friday, Gukesh had played out a draw against the German. On paper, it may seem like the alarm bells should be ringing for the boy wonder who has been attracting crowds in Goa. But the world No.9 is looking to use every loss as a learning experience. "It's been an interesting experience," he had said in an interview with FIDE earlier in the week, about his year as world champion. "The results have not been great this year. But recently, I've started to pick up form. It's a great learning experience." And there certainly is a lot to learn from a defeat at the Chess World Cup. The fact that the competition uses a knockout format - a rarity on the chess tour - makes the event even more difficult for players. After all, the great Magnus Carlsen became world champion five times and was ranked world No.1 for more than a decade before he finally managed to win the World Cup, in the last edition in 2023. The player Carlsen beat in that final, R Praggnanandhaa, continued his progress in Goa. The 20-year-old world No.7 was the only Indian player to win a match on Saturday. Playing with white pieces, he beat Armenian GM Robert Hovhannisyan. Joining Praggnanandhaa in the fourth round are the quartet of Arjun Erigaisi, Pranav V, Pentala Harikrishna and Karthik Venkataraman....