D Gukesh vs Ding Liren showdown not a World Chess Championship battle for me: Garry Kasparov

Russian chess legend Garry Kasparov has said that he does not see the upcoming showdown between China’s Ding Liren and India’s D Gukesh as a world championship match since the world’s best player Magnus Carlsen will not be competing in it.

Kasparov, arguably the greatest player of all time who ruled chess for two decades, added that the long line of world champions came to an end last year after Carlsen decided against defending his title, which led to Candidates Tournament 2024 champion Ian Nepomniachtchi facing runner-up Liren for the title.

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“My hottest take is that I don’t treat this as a World Championship match. For me, a World Championship match was always a match for the title of the best player in the world. I think the history of the World Championship matches started here in St Louis when Steinitz faced Zukertort and ended with Magnus Carlsen.

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“There were 16 World Champions. You could call them, at every given moment, the best players in the world. They took the title by beating the best players,” Kasparov, who reigned as the chess world champion from 1985 to 2000, said in a video posted by Saint Louis Chess Club on YouTube.

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Kasparov, however, did pick 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster Gukesh as the favourite to win the upcoming showdown in Singapore, adding that Liren can only successfully defend his title if he can “recover miraculously” in time for the upcoming battle.

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“With all due respect, Ding Liren playing Gukesh is an important event. It’s an FIDE event. I think Gukesh is a favourite, because the way Ding Liren has been playing lately, it’s kind of a shadow of the old Ding Liren we all remember. If he can recover miraculously, then it will be an interesting fight.

“But, in any case, it’s an event that has nothing to do with the main idea of the World Championship match, to decide, to find the best player on the planet,” added Kasparov, who had become the youngest-ever undisputed world champion after defeating compatriot Anatoly Karpov in 1985.