Magnus Carlsen: ‘Gukesh has the ceiling but Sindarov, a clear favourite’

“The word ‘defend’ is really not a good place to begin. In terms of how Gukesh has played for the last couple of years, he should not be in a position where he has to defend anything. He should be in a position where he has everything to gain.”

“He showed in 2024 that when things click, he has the potential to play at an extremely high level. I don’t think a lot of people believe he will do it now, but it’s even more of an interesting challenge for him to try and get back to that,” he said.

Earlier, Carlsen praised Sindarov as a well-rounded player with no apparent weaknesses. “He’s very well rounded, doesn’t have any obvious weaknesses,” he had said.

Carlsen also stressed that Gukesh must take the initiative from the start to keep Sindarov on the back foot.

“If Sindarov is ahead early on, it’s probably very, very bad news for Gukesh. If Gukesh is ahead early on, he automatically becomes a significant favourite. That’s how these matches work.”

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The Norwegian, who has long criticised the one-on-one format for determining the world’s best, added that even a non-favourite would rarely lose by more than one or two points.

“The thing about World Championship matches, and one of the reasons I believe it’s an extraordinarily bad way to determine the best player in the world, is that you play Classical, which is the most egalitarian format, and you don’t play a ton of games. It means that even if you think it’s 80-20 before the match, the likelihood is still very high that it’s going to be a one or two-point match, because chess is such a drawish game,” he said.