D Gukesh unfazed by criticism: ‘I don’t think the comments affected him at all’

Since becoming the world champion in 2024, D Gukesh has been on the receiving end of criticism from active chess players and legends like Garry Kasparov. Kasparov feels that since world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen relinquished the World C’ship title in 2022, he ended the era of classical chess champions. But Gukesh’s coach, Grzegorz Gajewski, feels that such criticism hasn’t ‘affected’ him at all.

“Gukesh won fair and square, but you can hardly call him the strongest player in the world. I don’t want to sound offensive, but I think Magnus ended the era of classical world champions. Gukesh’s world championship title is very different. It’s still clear that Magnus is the strongest, and Gukesh is yet to prove his superiority over others. Even players of his age category. The round 1 game against Praggnanandhaa at the Sinquefield Cup was very unimpressive. The rules are the rules and the games are the games,” Kasparov said.

Also Read: Magnus Carlsen’s frustration spills out after R Praggnanandhaa stuns him again: ‘It’s just unbelievably stupid’

“I don’t think the comments affected him at all. They have the right to their opinions. It’s your responsibility as a professional chess player, especially of his calibre, to simply focus on your job,” he added.

Gukesh is the youngest undisputed world champion in chess history. He is also the youngest player to have crossed a FIDE rating of 2750, at the age of 17. He is the third-youngest to have reached 270 Elo at age 16. He earned his GM title at the age of 12.

At the 2024 World Chess Championship, he scored three wins against Ding Liren. Liren got two wins. The showdown also witnessed nine draws in 14 classical rounds. Gukesh won the 14th and final game, with Liren making a huge endgame blunder.

Meanwhile, Carlsen also feels that the expectations placed on Gukesh are ‘unrealistic’. Speaking to El Mundo, he said, “The expectations placed on him were unrealistic. In part, he brought it on himself by playing in such strong tournaments, but he played incredibly in the Candidates Tournament and delivered one of the best performances in history at the Olympiad, leading India to gold. His (world championship)match against Ding Liren was more uneven, but even so, it’s difficult to dispute his results. Let’s remember that he’s still young, and until recently, nothing suggested he would be so consistently good.”

“I think he’s reached a period of stability and is learning. In certain aspects, he’s become stronger, but it’s not easy to demonstrate that in every game. Defending his title in every tournament isn’t easy, but he’ll do well. His trajectory is good. Another thing is that we have to be realistic about his generation because my career or Hikaru (Nakamura)’s doesn’t come around very often. Gukesh could become one of the best of all time, but more likely, he’ll end up being an elite player who had the best run of his life and became a champion. That in itself is already great,” he added.