Fabiano Caruana has described world champion D Gukesh's costly one-move blunder in the Tata Steel Chess Masters as a rare instance of chess blindness. The incident occurred during round six against Nodirbek Abdusattorov, leading to Gukesh's immediate resignation. Caruana emphasized that such lapses are uncommon for the young Indian grandmaster.
In the ongoing Tata Steel Chess Masters tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, 19-year-old world champion D Gukesh has faced scrutiny over his form following several setbacks. The most dramatic was his round six loss to Nodirbek Abdusattorov, where Gukesh resigned after a blunder that would have cost him a rook and a pawn with check. Italian-American grandmaster Fabiano Caruana, absent from this year's event, analyzed the mistake on his C Squared Podcast, attributing it to "chess blindness"—a sudden lapse in pattern recognition.
Caruana explained: "He just missed Queen f6. He thought exf6, Queen f6, and I guess evaluated it as kind of equal. He just missed Queen f6. How it happens, I don’t know. Of course, shocking blunders happen; it’s just visualization, right?" He noted that this kind of error rarely affects Gukesh, estimating it occurs "one in a hundred times," in contrast to players like Vincent Keymer, for whom it might happen "zero out of a hundred times." Caruana stressed it was not due to lost concentration but an accidental neurological hiccup: "Chess blindness happens in different ways at different times. It usually doesn't happen like this. I just think chess blindness can hit you at any moment, and some people are less susceptible to it than others."
The blunder deeply affected Gukesh, who sat silently at the board for minutes post-game and later processed it alone in the press room. His struggles continued: in round nine against Matthias Bluebaum, he drifted into a strategically lost position out of the Petrov Defense and resigned after 37 moves. Caruana found this particularly surprising, saying Gukesh went from preparation to a dire opposite-colored bishops endgame within five moves. Additionally, in round 12 versus Hans Niemann, Gukesh held an advantage but blundered a knight on move 41, resulting in a draw. These incidents have sidelined Gukesh from title contention, highlighting the pressures on the young champion.
