World champion D Gukesh is infamous for not spending too much time on social media. But on Wednesday, he made an exception, to clap back at a troll who asked him to retire in his Instagram DMs.

In a screengrab of his conversation with the unnamed person that Gukesh shared on his Instagram Stories, the 20-year-old revealed the initial message he had received and how he had responded.

“Time to retire bro,” the message read. To this, Gukesh responded: “Thanks bro.”

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Realising that the world champion was messaging him back, the person tried his luck by saying: “Can we have a match of chess?”

To this, Gukesh responded: “Sorry I’m retired bro.”

The person then tried to justify his actions by saying that he was “just completing a dare” his friend had given him.

Gukesh had shared a screengrab of this conversation with the caption: “haters are fun bro.”

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Gukesh will defend his World Championship title in November-December in Geneva against Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov. Since becoming the world champion at the age of 18 in December 2024, Gukesh has endured a wretched slump in form. He has not won any tournaments since becoming world champion, a sharp contrast to his all-conquering form in 2024, where he won the Candidates in the first time of competing in it, then led India to a history-making Olympiad gold and then winning the World Championship title by defeating China’s Ding Liren.

But since then, Gukesh has had tournaments where he finished last, like at Norway Chess earlier in the year, and also had events where he did not win a single game, like at the recent Chennai Grand Masters tournament held in his hometown.

His form has also attracted scathing comments from former world champions like Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov.