Newly crowned world chess champion Dommaraju Gukesh has a wish.
The 18-year-old from Chennai wants to play world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, the multiple-time world champion from Norway, in the World Chess Championship final.
“Playing against Magnus in the World Championship would be great, it would be the toughest challenge. It is up to Magnus, but I would love to test myself against the best player in the world,” Gukesh had said after beating Ding Liren of China in the final in Singapore on Thursday.
“No. I am not part of this circus anymore,” Carlsen, however, said on a popular recap stream in reference to world clashes.
The Norwegian superstar lauded Gukesh for making the most of his chances.
“It’s an incredible achievement (by Gukesh), first he was down in the Fide circuit, won the tournament in Chennai (in 2023), then he had an amazing performance in the Candidates tournament,” he said, analysing the match.
Carlsen said he was a bit surprised by how the match unfolded with most of the games ending in a draw.
“This was something that was a bit unexpected, a lot of us thought that Gukesh was the favourite to win the match but this was a game that never really took off, Gukesh was doing a great job of keeping the position alive and suddenly it was all over,” Carlsen said.
“It’s a really good thing for him, he has the title now for two years, winning this championship is extremely motivating so there is a very good chance that he is going to go for a great run of results now and probably become the No. 2 player now and maybe No. 1 in the not so distant future.”
Carlsen also praised Gukesh’s team, saying they did a good job.
“It is becoming progressively harder (to play mainstream openings), all main lines are analysed so they had to jump a bit,” Carlsen said of Gukesh’s opening choices. “I have generally kept it fairly risk-free with the white pieces, I have tried not to let things go out of control,” he added.
Kasparov praise
Russian chess great Garry Kasparov doffed his hat to Gukesh for surpassing him
in becoming the youngest world champion.
“He has summitted the highest peak of all: making his mother happy,” Kasparov wrote on X. “Gukesh impressively surmounted every obstacle and opponent in his path, especially considering his age, and nothing more can be asked,” he added.
