Magnus Carlsen on whether or not D Gukesh is a worthy world chess champion or not: ‘He’s accomplished extremely nicely…’

World No 1 Magnus Carlsen didn’t sound too eager on his upcoming showdown towards reigning world chess champion D Gukesh at Norway Chess that will get underway later this month. The Norwegian, in any case, has been vocal about his disinterest for Classical chess and has been channeling his efforts into selling Freestyle Chess, a.okay.a. Chess960, in addition to the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour that he’s a co-founder of.

Nevertheless, when it got here to the topic of Gukesh’s reign because the world champion, Carlsen didn’t doubt the truth that the 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster had earned what stays chess’ most prestigious title together with his stellar performances final yr.

Carlsen hails Gukesh as a “worthy champion”

The 34-year-old chess icon went to the extent of singling out his run on the forty fifth Chess Olympiad in Budapest final yr as “one of many all-time finest performances”.

“He gained the Candidates forward of a discipline of world beaters and he’s accomplished extremely nicely in Classical chess within the final couple of years, together with one of many all-time finest performances within the Olympiad,” Carlsen stated in an interview on the Take Take Take chess app.

So, is he the most effective participant on this planet? Stays to be seen. However is he a worthy world champion by what we measure that as? Yeah, I feel he actually is,” added Carlsen, who had voluntarily determined towards defending his world title in 2022.

Gukesh had turn out to be the youngest world champion within the historical past of the game, breaking the report beforehand held by Russian legend Garry Kasparov after defeating Chinese language Grandmaster Ding Liren 7.5-6.5 within the ‘Better of 14 Classical Video games’ showdown that befell in Singapore between November and December.

The Chennai lad had additionally turn out to be the youngest winner within the historical past of the Candidates Event after ending on prime of the standings forward of a packed discipline that comprised main names together with Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana.

A number of months later, Gukesh would play a starring position within the historic Chess Olympiad marketing campaign, wherein the Indian contingent gained gold within the ‘Open’ in addition to ‘Girls’ classes.