Updated on: Aug 10, 2025 07:10 pm IST
D Gukesh’s former trainer has been working with Indian GM Nihal Sarin since March this year.
Considered to be one of the best in faster formats of chess, Nihal Sarin is attempting to shift his focus to classical chess. The Indian Grandmaster has now moved to D Gukesh’s former trainer, GM Vishnu Prasanna. Prasanna was Gukesh’s trainer until Grzegorz Gajewski took over in 2022.
He has been working with Nihal since March this year, and their main work has been on improving the youngster’s classical rating, so that he performs well in the FIDE Grand Swiss and the FIDE World Cup later this year.
Speaking to ESPN, his new trainer said, “We’re trying to figure out what can we do to make him show results based on the way he approaches chess, based on his talent.”
Meanwhile, Nihal also conducts most of his training online at chess.com. According to his chess.com profile, he has played 55,282 games on the platform. 22,823 of those have been in bullet chess, a one-minute format.
Vishnu further added, “I have to adapt to Nihal. Definitely, there’s a lot of talent. I’ve never seen someone like him. But we’re seeing how to make it more practical, how to turn that talent to results.”
‘He has certainly stagnated’
Meanwhile, his former trainer Srinath Narayanan told ESPN, “He has certainly stagnated.”
“It is important to look forward, you cannot keep looking backwards. Stagnation is natural for someone so young at the elite level, but the next push can come only with confidence,” he added.
At the ongoing Chennai Masters, Nihal lost to Vidit Gujrathi, collapsing from a winning position in his third round fixture. He only has half a point out of three games. He also threw away a winning position against Anish Giri in the second round and should have drawn against Vincent Keymer in his opener. He ended up losing to Keymer.
