‘One in hundred times’: Fabiano Caruana reacts to Gukesh’s ‘shocking’ one-move blunder vs Nodirbek Abdusattorov

Talking about the Gukesh blunder, Caruana said: "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."

4 min readUpdated: Jan 31, 2026 10:40 PM IST

For almost five minutes, Gukesh Dommaraju could not bear to look at the board or his opponent, Nodirbek Abdusattorov. (Chessbase India live stream Screengrabs)

Fabiano Caruana, who is one of the glaring omissions from the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, has weighed in on the one-move blunder from world champion Gukesh Dommaraju against Nodirbek Abdusattorov calling it a case of “chess blindness”. Caruana did point out that this kind of a blunder “rarely happens to Gukesh… maybe it happens one in a hundred times”.

The 19-year-old Gukesh’s form at the ongoing Tata Steel Chess masters has been under scrutiny after his defeats to Nodirbek, Anish Giri and Matthias Bluebaum. The game against Abdusattorov in round 6 had ended in a resignation from Gukesh after a single-move blunder that would have cost him a rook and a pawn. Meanwhile, against Bluebaum in round 9, Gukesh found himself in an inferior position out of the opening which he was never able to fight his way out of before resigning in 37 moves.

A disappointed Gukesh after blundering an equal position against Nodirbek Abdusattorov. (PHOTO: Lennart Ootes)

Talking about the Gukesh blunder against Abdusattorov on his C Squared Podcast, Caruana said: “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 just didn’t see that Queen f6 was a possible move. I don’t really know what causes it. This is probably a neurological question—what causes a lapse of pattern recognition where you either instantly see Queen f6 or you somehow don’t? This is more about how the brain works because chess blindness happens in different ways at different times. It usually doesn’t happen like this, but I’ve put pieces on en prise (in a position to be taken) before.

INTERACTIVE: How Gukesh lost to Abdusattorov with one blunder

“I just think chess blindness can hit you at any moment, and some people are less susceptible to it than others. We can speculate on who’s more or less susceptible, but definitely, some people are very good at avoiding blunders. Now, this rarely happens to Gukesh—maybe it happens one in a hundred times—whereas maybe for someone like Vincent Keymer, it happens zero out of a hundred times. I wouldn’t even say this is losing concentration; this is just an accident striking. But of course, accidents can be costly, and it was a very costly accident. I’ve made blunders that happened to be insignificant; sometimes you miss something super obvious, but luckily it’s not crucial. This one just happened to be dramatic, especially in its presentation, because he just gives away a rook and a pawn with check in one move,” Caruana added.

WATCH: Fabiano Caruana reacts to Gukesh’s losses

Caruana also weighed in on the way Gukesh had played against Bluebaum, pointing out that it was surprising for him.

INTERACTIVE: How Gukesh lost to Bluebaum

“The game which surprises me is the one Gukesh played against Bluebaum, because Gukesh blundered. Basically, you’re white and straight out of your preparation in a line—because Bluebaum has been playing the Petrov throughout the tournament. So, straight out of your preparation is a line that you probably semi-anticipated. Judging by the time spent, Bishop f5 took him out of his prep, but after Bishop f5, he basically—within five moves—goes straight to a strategically lost position, which is just shocking. You go to these opposite-colored bishops, the bishop is on c2, and then you play b3. I mean, what have you done to your poor bishop? I don’t know if this bishop ever escapes in the game, but probably not. Yeah, it never really escaped. This was just shocking. I can see this happening in blitz, but in a classical game, to get to such a strategically lost position with White was a surprise. The way that Gukesh drifted into this lost position was far less easy for me to understand.”