 "18-year-old D Gukesh with the World Chess Championship trophy. Image: FIDE")
World No 1 Magnus Carlsen did not sound too keen on his upcoming showdown against reigning world chess champion D Gukesh at Norway Chess that gets underway later this month. The Norwegian, after all, has been vocal about his disinterest for Classical chess and has been channeling his efforts into promoting Freestyle Chess, a.k.a. Chess960, as well as the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour that he is a co-founder of.
However, when it came to the subject of Gukesh’s reign as the world champion, Carlsen did not doubt the fact that the 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster had earned what remains chess’ most prestigious title with his stellar performances last year.
Carlsen hails Gukesh as a “worthy champion”
The 34-year-old chess icon went to the extent of singling out his run at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest last year as “one of the all-time best performances”.
“He won the Candidates ahead of a field of world beaters and he’s done incredibly well in Classical chess in the last couple of years, including one of the all-time best performances in the Olympiad,” Carlsen said in an interview on the Take Take Take chess app.
So, is he the best player in the world? Remains to be seen. But is he a worthy world champion by what we measure that as? Yeah, I think he certainly is," added Carlsen, who had voluntarily decided against defending his world title in 2022.
Gukesh had become the youngest world champion in the history of the sport, breaking the record previously held by Russian legend Garry Kasparov after defeating Chinese Grandmaster Ding Liren 7.5-6.5 in the ‘Best of 14 Classical Games’ showdown that took place in Singapore between November and December.
The Chennai lad had also become the youngest winner in the history of the Candidates Tournament after finishing on top of the standings ahead of a packed field that comprised leading names including Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana.
A few months later, Gukesh would play a starring role in the historic Chess Olympiad campaign, in which the Indian contingent won gold in the ‘Open’ as well as ‘Women’ categories.