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Magnus Carlsen asked if he’s afraid of facing Gukesh in classical chess, here’s World No 1 response

In an interview on Take Take Take app, five-time World Champion Magnus Carlsen was asked about a topic that has been discussed in the chess community: is the Norwegian scared of playing Gukesh in the classical format?

FILE: India's Gukesh in action against Magnus Carlsen during FIDE 2023 World Cup. (FIDE/Maria Emelianova)

Gukesh Dommaraju became the youngest world champion in chess history last year, ascending to the throne at the age of 18. His rise in classical chess has also coincided with Magnus Carlsen’s withdrawal from the longest format of the game and his abdication of the throne. The two will face off in classical chess at the Norway Chess event in May-June which will mark the first battle between Gukesh and Carlsen in classical format since Gukesh became the world champion. Asked about the online community’s speculations if Magnus Carlsen was afraid of facing India’s Gukesh in classical chess, the Norwegian came up with a measured response. Classical chess just doesn’t cut it for him anymore.

The world no 1 said in an interview Take Take Take: “Everybody has a lot of respect for Gukesh in classical chess. But I can tell you for sure that the reason why I am not playing a lot of classical chess is that I am not really motivated to play it. But for him, it’s different. It’s really his main thing.”

In the recent interview, Carlsen also said: “If people think I was criticizing Gukesh too much it’s because I expect so much from him in classical chess. Similarly, in other formats, I might not be as critical because I don’t expect that much!”

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When asked if Gukesh is a worthy world chess champion in his opinion, Carlsen added: “He won the Candidates ahead of a field of world-beaters and he’s done incredibly well in classical chess over the last couple of years, including giving one of the all-time best performances at the Olympiad. Is he the best player in the world? Remains to be seen! But is he a worthy world champion? By what they measure that by I think he certainly is!”

After Gukesh had lost Game 1 of the World Chess Championship, Carlsen had famously quipped: “It’s hard to understate how bad this was from Gukesh. Not a single good decision basically the whole game. Everything was wrong.” After Game 5, Carlsen had said: “Gukesh has generally not impressed me.”

In another interview in September 2024, Carlsen, when asked about Gukesh, had said: “Gukesh is still a bit of a mystery to me. To have somebody who is so unbelievably much better at classical chess… but when he plays rapid and blitz, you can tell that at times this guy does not have that intuition to play good moves quickly. But he calculates unbelievably well.”

When Gukesh was asked about this by the Take Take Take app in an interview during the Paris Freestyle event, Gukesh had said: “People have different opinions. But as long as I beat my opponent, I don’t care. What he says is not completely bullshit, yeah? It made sense: the games were not great.” Then, with a chuckle, Gukesh added: “But I won the match yeah, so what else can I do?”

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When Carlsen was told about this response in the recent interview, the former world champion said: “If he has that attitude, it’s excellent for him. If he has the attitude that people may say whatever they want I don’t care, that’s good!”