Fabiano Caruana latest top-rated chess player to question D Gukesh: 'Not playing close to his best...'

D Gukesh has had quite the few detractors ever since he became the youngest world champion in chess history last December following his victory over China’s Ding Liren in Singapore. The biggest among them were five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, ranked first and second respectively in the world with the former counted among the greatest of all time.

There’s another member of chess’ elite who has been questioning whether Gukesh, who has been making headlines globally before even turning 20, truly deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Carlsen or not.

American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana, who had finished runner-up at the Norway Chess recently – behind Carlsen but ahead of Gukesh – isn’t just playing down Gukesh’s as a threat for chess’ old order, but is also describing the new generation of Indian players as youngsters who aren't as scary as they are made to be .

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‘Gukesh has been ambitiously fighting for first place’

And speaking on the C Squared Podcast, Caruana added that even though Gukesh is close to playing his best Classical chess, the titles aren’t coming as frequently as they were last year.

“I don’t think for the last two events (Superbet Chess Classic and Norway Chess) you can say that Gukesh is not playing close to his best classical chess. That would be a big stretch, not even a stretch I think that would just be dishonest,” Caruana, who overtook Gukesh on the FIDE Rating after Norway Chess, said on the podcast.

“But overall if you look at the last year and a half, then Budapest Chess Olympiad and FIDE Candidates and then Wijk aan Zee twice… Gukesh has had good performances. Obviously he’s been one of the players who is ambitiously fighting for first place in many events,” he added.

Gukesh is yet to win a tournament since he was crowned world champion, having finished runner-up at the Tata Steel Chess behind compatriot R Praggnanandhaa and third at Norway Chess.

The Chennai lad has also struggled to make an impact in other Classical events such as the Superbet Classic that took place in Bucharest, Romania before the trip to Norway, and his struggle with the Freestyle format has been well-documented in the ongoing Grand Slam Tour.

Gukesh, however, has had his moments, especially in Norway where he pulled off a stunning victory over Carlsen – beating the world No 1 in the Classical format for the first time in his career.