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New sensation: 12-year-old Sergey Sklokin pulls off a major upset, defeating world champion D Gukesh of India.
The chess world woke up to a jaw-dropping shock when a 12-year-old prodigy, Sergey Sklokin, defeated reigning world champion D Gukesh in a blistering blitz encounter. What was expected to be a routine win for the champion instantly turned into a viral moment that stunned fans, grandmasters, and analysts alike. One fatal mistake, a few seconds of pressure, and history was rewritten — proving once again that in blitz chess, reputation means nothing and one move can change everything.
The year 2025 hasn’t been particularly special for world champion D Gukesh. Even at the end of the year, he suffered a major defeat. The Indian Grandmaster was defeated by 12-year-old Sergey Sklokin in the third round of the FIDE World Blitz Championship held here. Gukesh made a crucial mistake, leading to an upset against the young FIDE Master. Sergey is also the world champion in both the Blitz and Rapid categories in the Under-19 age group. He has previously defeated Hikaru Nakamura as well. Sergey plays under the FIDE banner, and his family has roots in Armenia and Russia.
Sergey Sklokin put up a strong fight.
World champion Gukesh has a Blitz rating of 2628, which is 228 points higher than Sklokin’s rating of approximately 2400. There is also a significant difference in the skill level of the two players. Gukesh is a Grandmaster with a classical rating above 2750, while Sergey holds the FIDE Master title, which is two levels below Grandmaster. Despite this large difference, Sergey put up a strong fight against Gukesh.
He received training from experts.
Sergey is among the 13 children from around the world who were selected for training at the FIDE Chess Academy. His trainers included legendary players Judit Polgár and Artur Yusupov. Sergey remains patient even in difficult times.
The 70th move changed the course of the match.
Gukesh was in a strong position against Sergey Sklokin and was close to winning the match. However, the match completely turned around in the 70th move, and Gukesh couldn’t recover. The Indian Grandmaster, playing with the black pieces, had only eight seconds left on the clock, while Sergey had approximately 13 seconds. Gukesh made a mistake here, and Sergey capitalized on it. Gukesh, however, did not manage to qualify for the knockout stage of the tournament.