India, Sept. 12 -- The leg was shaking in a nervous frenzy, deep breaths were being taken, the fingers were going through his hair, the neck was being massaged but reigning world champion D Gukesh knew that he had blundered to his third defeat in a row at the Grand Swiss chess tournament on Thursday.

A day later he was held to a 102-move draw by Divya Deshmukh. The drawn-out endgame saw the world champion (Elo rating 2767) fail to get a decisive advantage over his 2478-rated opponent.

There are times when you don't quite know what is happening. You keep trying your best but the results just don't come your way. It happens to the best. It happens to world champions too.

On Thursday, when he finally extended his arm to shake hands and re...