'Anybody can win on a given day': Anish Giri wonders if Magnus Carlsen can still dominate, gives Gukesh's example

Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri, who recently won the FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, has suggested that even five-time World Champion Magnus Carlsen might find it hard to continue his dominance at the elite level in the current time. Giri said that the competitiveness among the top players is very balanced now, and no one stands far above the rest.

‘I think currently the playing field is very level’

Speaking to FIDE, Giri said it would be interesting to see if Carlsen continues to play classical chess and if he could still dominate the format. He gave the examples of India’s D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa, who had very good runs in the past couple of years but also went through rough patches in between. The Dutch GM, however, expects Carlsen to evolve and change his style if he continues playing.

“I think currently the playing field is very level. I gave this interview where people mistook the interview. I said that some players will drop out and I brought up some names and some of those players actually dropped out of top ten. I just brought up like a bunch of names. It was not about particular players but just in general. I was talking about a notion that somehow all the top players now, I don’t see anybody standing out with all due respect,” Giri said.

“Okay, Gukesh had this insane run, right? Olympiad and Candidates but now he’s having a rough tournament. Pragg (Praggnanandhaa) had an epic run, had a rough tournament here. Those who didn’t have an amazing run, had a good run here. I would also really love to see if Carlsen would continue playing classical chess. If he would be able to maintain his domination. I guess he would be, but I would expect that it would take a different form and he would become a different player than he is right now. But I don’t know that really. But in any case, people that are playing now at the upcoming Candidates and also Gukesh as well as World Champion, I think these are all tremendous players but you can see on a given day anybody can win,” he added.

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Can Anish Giri 🇳🇱 become the World Champion?♟👑

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— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) September 25, 2025

Giri has qualified for the 2026 Candidates Tournament thanks to his victory at the FIDE Grand Swiss earlier this month. Meanwhile, Carlsen is not taking part in the current FIDE cycle. He will not play in the upcoming Candidates and will not challenge the reigning World Champion Gukesh. He will also miss out on the 2025 Chess World Cup, which is slated to be held in India.