Magnus Carlsen's hard-hitting answer when asked about his successor, snubs Gukesh: 'They are good but...'

Five-time World Champion and the current World No. 1 player Magnus Carlsen didn’t hold back when asked about who could be his successor in the world of chess. After the final round of Norway Chess, Carlsen gave an honest response when questioned if there is anyone ready to take his place at the top.

Carlsen won the 2025 edition of the Norway Chess after an intense 10-round battle in classical games against five other players, including World Champion D Gukesh. After the tournament ended, Carlsen was asked about the next best player, and he didn’t take Gukesh’s name, despite losing a game to him earlier in the event.

Carlsen asked to pick his successor

Carlsen said that there is no one ready to take his place at the top right now. He added that the experienced players are still better than the younger generation.

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“There is no one. There is no one at the moment. That’s the honest answer. There could be, but at the moment, it’s not likely,” Carlsen was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

“At the moment, I still think that the older guys are better. Every single one of them (kids) has very, very clear flaws in their games,” he added.

Gukesh gets mixed reviews from Carlsen

Carlsen also spoke about Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh, who recently won the World Chess Championship after defeating China’s Ding Liren. Carlsen praised Gukesh’s progress but also pointed out that the 19-year-old still has a long way to go.

“I think Gukesh showed in this tournament that he is on track, he is doing fantastic, but he’s maybe not way ahead of track as we may have thought,” Carlsen said.

“I think he is kind of little bit where I was, 2008, 2009ish, where he can do extremely well, but you can still see that there are that great results that come not only with the quality of positional play, it’s a lot of fighting qualities. That is what kids are supposed to do, you are not supposed to master everything at that age. As for the others, yes, they are good but the likelihood of one of them becoming like a very clear number one, I don’t see it very clearly at the moment,” he added.