Magnus Carlsen praises D Gukesh… ‘didn’t expect him to do this well at Candidates’

A week after D Gukesh won the Candidates tournament to become the youngest-ever World Chess Championship challenger, Magnus Carlsen has heaped praise on 17-year-old Indian prodigy. The World No.1 called Gukesh a “wonderful guy who was very quiet and humble and had a great curiosity when it comes to everything about chess”.

“I didn’t expect him to do this well at the Candidates. It’s usually a staple of some of the greatest players ever that they show promise at an early age but then they sort of succeed at the highest level a little bit before people generally expect them to. It’s been an amazing story,” Carlsen said on the Norwegian podcast Sjakksnakk (Chess Chat), run by his friends Askild Bryn and Odin Blikra Vea.

Carlsen pointed out how unflappable the Chennai boy looked as he emerged victorious from an eight-man field that had some very experienced veterans.

While Gukesh showed no signs of being under pressure at the Candidates, his opponent in the upcoming World Championship, Ding Liren, has not been himself since he won the title last year. He’s had shaky performances at the Tata Steel Masters event in Wijk aan Zee and at the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge recently, the rare tournament he played in after becoming world champion.

“(Who wins the World Championship) is going to be a very open question. It’s going to be about who’s going to have the best nerves in that World Championship match. Gukesh hasn’t shown that many nerves so far. He’s so young that he doesn’t know any better. He doesn’t understand that you should be nervous (at an event like the Candidates). I think that could be a positive thing for him to play a World Championship match this early,” Carlsen said.

Gukesh poses with his team after winning the Candidates, including his father Dr Rajinikanth 9second from right) and his trainer Grzegorz Gajewski (right). (PHOTO: Michal Walusza/FIDE)

While talking about the world champion from China, the World No.1 said: “Ding has not looked himself at tournaments he has played since he won the World Championship. Question is whether Ding Liren is sort of permanently broken from the last World Championship that he played. I’m not sure, but I think there’s a possibility that he could be. I really hope that he will come back, not only in the World Chess Championship, but also in other tournaments.

“I hope we’ll see him at a much higher level. But I’m not quite sure about that. If he can show the level he has in the past, he’s probably going to be the favourite (at the World Championship). What happens in World Championship matches is that you have these months of preparation. So people can play a bit different opening lines to try and be solid at the start but as the match progresses people usually show their true colours. Their weaknesses are amplified and they end up being pretty much the same player that they were recently. If Ding continues to play really poorly leading up to the World Championship match, I don’t think we should necessarily expect him to be at a much higher level when the moment comes.”

Carlsen said that in the coming months Ding needed to fix his psychological issues before he started working on his tournament prep in training camps.

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“I’m hoping that we see something before the World Championship game that Ding could be at least 90 percent of what he was when he was at his best in 2019. I think the level that he showed in the 2023 World Championship was still quite far from his best. It just happened to be enough, because he was playing someone who was also a nervous wreck (Ian Nepomniachtchi).

“There is a chance that he’s not going to come back to the same level that he was at his peak around 2018-2019. Taking time off after the World Championship match has done him some good. But it’s not quite enough. Hope he’ll come back. But it’s not a foregone conclusion that we’ll see him at that level again. I think what has happened to Ding after the World Championship match should make people, general chess fans, as well as other professionals, realise how tough these events actually are. Because we’re now a year removed from his World Championship title and there aren’t a lot of signs that he’s recovered from that.”

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