D Gukesh’s World Chess Championship title questioned by Magnus Carlsen’s ex-teammate, sends huge warning to India No. 1

Since becoming the youngest-ever world champion in history, D Gukesh’s victory in Singapore last year has been constantly downplayed by some grandmasters, which include Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik. Now Norwegian GM Jon Ludvig Hammer has joined the bandwagon and questioned Gukesh’s historic achievement.

Hammer was Carlsen’s second when he beat Viswanathan Anand to become world champion for the first time in 2013. Speaking to Take Take Take, Hammer felt that even Gukesh is the reigning champion, his challengers are on the same level as him.

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“It would be great for chess if Gukesh actually managed to keep his title now for prolonged period of time,” he said.

“We are now in a potential situation where the challengers and the champion are roughly the same strength which could mean that we see the title hopping from player to player and that I think is not a good thing.”

‘I liked it when we had the Karpov, the Kasparov, the Carlsen…’

Hammer then went on to lay some examples and felt that Gukesh will have to hold onto the title. “I liked it when we had the Karpov, the Kasparov, the Carlsen, where there was one guy who was just clearly better than others, because it lends the title so much legitimacy,” he added.

Gukesh had a poor run in Paris recently, as he finished bottom of the standings in the second leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam. Meanwhile, he was winless in Weissenhaus too and came eighth.

Carlsen won the Paris event, as he beat World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura in the final, and also took the Tour lead with 40 points. The World No. 1 also collected the 300,000 USD prize money.

The next Freestyle Chess Grand Slam will be held in Las Vegas in July, and is scheduled to take place from July 15-19. The Paris event also saw Fabiano Caruana finish in third spot, after defeating Vincent Keymer in the playoff. India’s Arjun Erigaisi took fifth position, followed by Ian Nepomniachtchi in seventh.