Gukesh D, who became the youngest world chess champion in history by defeating Ding Liren last December, has experienced a mixed journey in recent months. In his first tournament as world champion at Tata Steel chess in Wijk aan Zee, he nearly clinched victory before losing to Praggnanandhaa in a tie-break.His performance then declined in several Freestyle Chess events. At the Weissenhaus leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, he struggled with zero wins, 11 draws, and six defeats. He continued to face challenges at the Paris leg and the Superbet Chess Classic Romania in Bucharest, where he secured just one win, six draws, and two defeats.However, Gukesh made a strong comeback at Norway Chess. He achieved his first classical victory over world number one Magnus Carlsen, which led to Carlsen’s notable fist-smashing reaction. He also secured his first classical win over fellow Indian player Arjun Erigaisi. He remained close to Carlsen throughout the tournament, finishing third overall.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Viswanathan Anand, a five-time world champion and Gukesh’s mentor, has been closely monitoring his progress. When asked about Gukesh’s recent performance at Norway Chess, Anand upgraded his assessment.“I think I will go up to B. He deserved a D, but he got a lot of answers correct somehow (at Norway Chess). So that’s a B. Given that he survived and based on his points, I would give him a B,” he told Chess.com.Before Norway Chess, Anand had given Gukesh a lower grade in his six-month assessment.“I think I would say only ‘D minus’, but Wijk aan Zee is pulling him to ‘D plus’ maybe or ‘C minus’,” he had said.“He played extremely well (at Wijk aan Zee). Kind of rebound effect. I mean, you always have this fear that after the world championship, you suddenly have some emptiness. But in fact, for him, the first event was extremely successful. The rest of the year has been much more discreet, which is also maybe normal. Everybody treats him differently. He’s finding his way. What would I put on a report card? I think ‘needs further improvement’ is kind of obvious; ‘Must work harder’… something like that. He’s still very strong and he just needs to find the right connections again.”
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How do you assess Gukesh D’s performance at Norway Chess?
In a later interview, Anand discussed Gukesh’s performance at Norway Chess, noting areas for improvement.“At Norway Chess, Gukesh made a lot of questionable decisions in his moves and not in time trouble. He did it in the earlier phase of the game. Quite some people criticized that and I think the criticism is fair. Some of it at least,” the five-time world champion added.“The two games he won with Magnus and Arjun are really the questionable ones. I’ll grant you all that. But then let me turn the same question: How many people in the world can beat Arjun and Magnus from these positions? There are many things to criticize about his play. He was under the same time pressure as them. Second, if Hikaru or Magnus had escaped from some of these positions, we’d just say, ‘But they’re very strong.’ Same logic has to apply here.“I’m sort of conflicted. On the one hand, I feel that we can’t just say he played a great tournament because he finished on 50%. Also, the fact that you have such defensive skills doesn’t mean you should be depending on them all the time. For instance, most countries have armies in order not to use them all the time. You don’t want to depend too much on these skills. But you have to say he was very resourceful.”
