D Gukesh not best player in world, feels Magnus Carlsen's chief trainer: 'No evidence he is going to be dominant...'

The reigning world champion D Gukesh is not the best player in the world, reckons Magnus Carlsen’s chief trainer Peter Heine Nielsen. He also said that as of now there is no evidence that Gukesh is going to dominate this generation.

Since beating Ding Liren to win the world title almost a year ago, Gukesh has not been at his best. Despite poor results, he did beat the top-ranked Carlsen for the first time in classical chess this year.

Nielsen believes that not just is Gukesh not the best player in the world, but also behind a few others.

‘Gukesh not the best’

“He is the present. He is the world champion. He is an interesting player. I mean, I don’t think he is the best chess player in the world. I think that’s Magnus and probably there are couple of others who are also stronger than Gukesh. But that is not his fault that you are not the best player in the world, only one person can be that,” Nielsen said on the Chess with Mustreader YouTube podcast.

Nielsen praised Gukesh for his courageous approach towards the game but also said that he needs to improve in many ways.

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“He is very impressive and very interesting in many ways. Also very vulnerable and unimpressive in many ways. That goes to all sportspersons. He has a very courageous attitude and keeps on pushing it to the extremes,” he added.

“So I mean he is an interesting player and right now, there is no evidence that he is going to be the dominant player of his generation,” Nielsen said.

Gukesh has been struggling with form since his world title triumph. In the latest FIDE rankings, he slipped to number 10 with 2754 rating points, 40 below his peak of 2794 that he achieved in October 2024.