Uzbekistan's Nodirbek Abdusattorov opened a can of worms recently with his "controversial" opinion about reigning world champion D. Gukesh, declaring that the Indian grandmaster will lose his world championship title in the next match. However, Gukesh's predecessor on the world champion's throne, Viswanathan Anand, has termed Abdusattorov's comments about Gukesh as ‘good fun’. FOLLOW LIVE: Gukesh vs Arjun Erigaisi, Round 4 of FIDE Grand Swiss "Yes, I am aware of it (Nodirbek's comments). It's been suggested to me a lot. It keeps popping up on all my feeds. Respect to these boys. They know how to make content. He is so innocent, no? Is that controversial? No, it's good fun. That's how the game is played these days,” Anand said during the live feed of the first round of FIDE Grand Swiss. Nodirbek was asked by FIDE's social media many months back for a controversial opinion, to which he had replied: “Gukesh will lose his title in the next match. Is that controversial?” After the video had gone viral, the Uzbek GM had doubled down on his comments. Earlier, former world champion Garry Kasparov had also tried to downplay Gukesh’s world title, terming it as ‘different’ from his or Magnus Carlsen’s world titles. ALSO READ | How did World Champion respond to Abdusattorov’s unpopular opinion that ‘Gukesh will lose his title’? Gukesh and Abdusattorov are currently competing in the FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand in Uzbekistan. While the tournament offers two spots for next year’s candidates tournament with Abdusattorov, along with other GMs like Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Praggnanandhaa R in contention, Gukesh has been competing in the tournament as part of his preparations. When asked about Nodirbek Abdusattorov's comments about him losing the next World Championship match, Gukesh downplayed them, simply stating that everyone has the right to their own opinion. “I mean, first of all, obviously, Nodirbek Abdusattorov is a great player and he’s very much capable. But at this tournament, he can only qualify for the Candidates, so it’s one more step to become world champion. But whoever it is, I am sure you know, deserves to be there and is very much capable of playing well. I am not really rooting for anybody; I just do my part as a researcher,” Gukesh said. Abdusattorov, who is the world’s youngest rapid world champion, was part of the Uzbekistan team which defeated the India B team in the 2022 Chess Olympiad. At that time, the Uzbek GM had spoken about following Gukesh’s games and analysing the Indian’s game plans. “I’ve watched his games a lot and I kind of understand what he is aiming for during the game. Although I love his playing style — very unique compared to any of the young players — and we have completely different styles, I feel I still understand his moves and what he tries to do because I watched a lot of his games and analysed his chess,” Abdusattorov had told The Indian Express earlier.
