The 19-year-old Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh’s has shown remarkable ascendancy to become the world champion, chess great Magnus Carlsen feels that Gukesh is not yet ready to reach a period of long-term dominance. Carlsen, who recently lost to Gukesh during Round 6 of Norway Chess, pointed out that the new generation of players still have some flaws to iron out. He pointed out that “once-in-a-generation talents are once in a generation for a reason,” implying that Gukesh might not yet have the steady advantage needed to overtake the chess world as Carlsen himself did.
In an interview with Indian chess sensation Tania Sachdev, Carlsen was questioned regarding possible players who would be able to follow in his era of dominance. He replied by stating that Gukesh, while very gifted, is not far in front of his contemporaries to maintain a reign of dominance at this point.
“There is no one at the moment. That’s the honest answer. I think Gukesh showed in this tournament that he’s on track,” Carlsen said.
“Maybe he’s not way ahead of track as we may have thought. I think he’s a bit like where I was in 2008-2009. He can do extremely well. The great results come not only with the quality of the positional play, but with a lot of fighting qualities,” Carlsen added.
“That’s how kids are supposed to be. You’re not supposed to master everything at that age. As for the others, they’re good but the likelihood of one of them becoming a clear number one, I don’t see very clearly. At the moment I think the older guys are better,” Carlsen stated.
“Every single one of them has very clear flaws and that’s how it’s supposed to be at their age. Once-in-a-generation talents are once-in-a-generation talents for a reason – it’s not that easy,” Carlsen said further.
Also Read: WATCH – D Gukesh Extremely Disappointed After Losing To Fabiano Caruana At Norway Chess 2025
In context, Magnus Carlsen is viewed as among the greatest chess players of all time, ranked number one in the FIDE world rankings for almost 14 years as of July 2011. While Gukesh was able to beat Carlsen in their head-to-head meeting at Norway Chess, he ultimately came short of winning the tournament. In the last round, American grandmaster Fabiano Caruana beat Gukesh, which left the door open for Carlsen to win the overall tournament.
Carlsen concluded the Norway Chess event with 16 points after agreeing to a draw against fellow Indian opponent Arjun Erigaisi when he was in a difficult position.
