 "D Gukesh and Magnus Carlsen in action during the Weissenhaus leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in February. Image credit: Freestyle Chess")
D Gukesh has had a mixed run since being crowned the youngest world champion in chess history , finishing runner-up at the Tata Steel Chess before struggling to make a mark in back-to-back events in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. The 18-year-old narrowly missed out on his maiden Tata Steel Chess title after losing to compatriot R Praggnanandhaa in the tie-breaks in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands.
As for Freestyle Chess, Gukesh failed to win a single game in the opening event in Germany’s Weissenhaus before finishing at the bottom of the standings in Paris last month. And in the ongoing Superbet Classic in Poland that’s part of the Grand Chess Tour, Gukesh finds himself joint seventh with 3.5 points after seven rounds.
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Gukesh certainly is under pressure at the moment, with his critics continuing to doubt his credentials as a world champion. The Chennai lad, however, will get the opportunity to bury the disappointment of his underwhelming run in the unpredictable Freestyle Chess format in the Norway Chess tournament that takes place in Stavanger later this month.
And the highlight of this event will be the dream showdown between Gukesh and Magnus Carlsen – the reigning world champion vs the world No 1 in the Classical format.
‘I don’t want to play it that often’
From world No 3 Gukesh’s perspective, this certainly will rank as the biggest match of his career so far, possibly bigger than his world championship battle against China’s Ding Liren in Singapore five months ago.
Carlsen, however, has chosen to play down the significance of the upcoming showdown by reminding the chess world of his disinterest in the Classical format. The 34-year-old Norwegian chess icon, after all, had voluntarily opted against defending his world title in 2022 while allowed Ding to take his place in the 2023 World Championship match against Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi.
And in recent months, Carlsen has made it clear that Freestyle Chess will be his priority going forward, having co-founded the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour and the Freestyle Chess Players Club with German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner.
“Obviously I’ve played him in Freestyle but I know that that’s not his thing, at least so far. I think everybody has a lot of respect for him in Classical Chess," Carlsen said in an interview on Take Take Take.
“But I can tell you for sure that the reason why I’m not playing a lot of Classical chess is that I’m not motivated to play it. I don’t want to play it that often.
“I think for him it’s different, it’s his main thing. So it’s kind of natural that we don’t clash that often,” he added.
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The 13th edition of Norway Chess, of which local favourite Carlsen is a six-time champion, takes place between 26 May and 6 June this year and will have the world’s top-five players in action, with Hikaru Nakamura (No 2), Arjun Erigaisi (No 4) and Fabiano Caruana (No 5).
Also participating in the event that carries a prize money of $148,000 is Chinese GM Wei Yi, ranked eighth in the world, completing what is among the strongest lineups across tournaments in the world.