Former world champion Magnus Carlsen expected D Gukesh to have a “bad event” in the candidates’ chess.
D Gukesh was not most people’s contender for the title at the FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament in Toronto over the past fortnight. The 17-year-old, who became Grand Master five years ago, hasn’t had much luck. Former world champion Magnus Carlsen was quite blunt about the chances of the Chennai native, who was set to make his first appearance at the Candidates.
“I can’t imagine him winning the candidates. I see him between +2 and -5 (at the end of the tournament). I think he will definitely win at least a few matches, but he will also suffer some heavy losses. I don’t think he’ll do badly, but I don’t think he’ll do well either. He’s not quite ready to take the plunge yet. It’s more likely that he has a bad event,” Carlsen said in an interview on Chess.com about Gukesh’s chances ahead of the tournament.
Two weeks later, Gukesh became the youngest candidate chess champion and will face reigning champion Ding Liren for the world title in November.
Teenagers these days pic.twitter.com/6sZClEI1SL
-Mike Klein (@ChessMike) April 22, 2024
Carlsen, who withdrew from the tournament, chose two-time World Championship contender Ian Nepomniachtchi, world No. 2 Fabiano Caruana and world No. 3 Hikaru Nakamura as favorites. The trio finished half a point behind Gukesh.
“Gukesh is probably a little stronger than me and others thought. The problem with Gukesh is that he can seem very vulnerable at times. Then he’s not very good at rapid chess either. It can confuse (people’s assessment of him). And he’s not as well known as some of the other kids, which is confusing. But he proved in this tournament that he is very strong,” Carlsen admitted during a Chess24 stream.
Carlsen was also asked about the younger generation of players coming up. Besides Gukesh, 17, R Praggnanandhaa is 18 and made waves when he reached the final of the 2023 Chess World Cup but lost to Carlsen.
“As far as the young players are concerned, they are on the right track. I don’t think any of them are ready…I’d like to be world No. 1 in the near future. But there are a lot of players who will never be like that. I don’t want to give advice to these youngsters or anything,” he said before revealing that Gukesh had approached him during the Freestyle Chess GOAT Challenge chess event and asked for advice.
“He asked what he should do during the candidates. I said, “I don’t have any advice.” I don’t know.’ I only told him that he should not go crazy and that he should wait for his chance because others would go crazy. I don’t think this advice was helpful at all. He played very well,” Carlsen said.
