File image of D Gukesh during the Tata Steel Chess India tournament in Kolkata in September 2023. (Express photo. by Partha Paul.)
Magnus Carlsen believes Gukesh has a “significant advantage” against world champion Ding Liren, with their world chess championship battle less than a month away.
The former world champion, whoever, added that seeing Gukesh’s results at the recent-concluded European Club Cup 2024 would give the Chinese world champion some confidence. After a barn-storming Chess Olympiad in Budapest where Gukesh went unbeaten in 10 games for the gold medal-winning Indian open team (winning eight games and drawing the other two), the Indian teenager recently lost for the first time in the classical format in 38 games at the European Club Cup, losing to 34-year-old Russian grandmaster Dmitry Andreikin.
“Gukesh has been quite vulnerable in some games. At the Olympiad he was, well, not vulnerable. He was dominant,” Carlsen told ChessBase India in an interview before adding: “Obviously, Gukesh is a significant favourite. This is one of those matches where if Gukesh strikes first, he will win the match without any trouble. But the longer it goes without a first decisive game, the better it is for Ding. He has the ability. But he doesn’t have the confidence. Anything that can potentially give him that confidence could help him win that match.”
What’s at stake for Gukesh
Carlsen, who recently launched a chess app called Take Take Take, had also predicted on the app’s Daily Take section that Gukesh would win the prestigious event.
Should the Indian teenager be able to fulfill that prophecy, he would become the 18th world chess champion. But more significantly, at the age of 18, he would become the youngest world chess champion in history.
Since becoming world champion against Ian Nepomniachtchi last year, China’s Ding has suffered a dip in form, which he himself has attributed to his mental state. The 14-game world chess championship will start with the first game on November 25.
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