STAVANGER: Ever since D Gukesh became the youngest world champion in history, there had been a strange undercurrent running through the game. Even if the Indian teen had been widely recognised by FIDE (the game's world governing body), reputed GMs have, at least in hushed tones and whispers, tried to attach riders to the throne he first occupied last December.
"Well, yeah, but he didn't have to beat Magnus Carlsen". Or quotes pretty much meaning that started dominating the discourse. While the Norwegian, who abdicated his throne in 2023, has never once not recognised the Indian as the legitimate heir, the 34-year-old had criticised the 19-year-old on multiple occasions. Garry Kasparov, one of the game's greats, did the same thing.
For what it's worth, Gukesh and his camp never addressed these comments publicly. Till Sunday night. After Gukesh's first over-the-board Classical win over Carlsen, Grzegorz Gajewski, when asked what this win means for his ward, said: "First of all, he has never beaten Magnus. Secondly, as a world champion, he keeps facing these comments that, 'okay, you are the world champion only because Magnus didn't play'... You know, you try not to hear those comments, but when you lose to him, and then you lose to him again, that's not a bit pleasant. Now, he beat him. So, I hope this is going to give him some credit and a lot of confidence." For some context, since the win over Ding Liren in Singapore, the Indian has suffered losses to Carlsen across formats including in Classical in the first round at Norway Chess.
The Pole, who joined Gukesh's innermost circle at this very event in 2023, added: "Why should we be bothered with that (the external noise)? We try to be objective. Magnus made his decision. Every person admired him as a chess player and everybody knows how strong he is but he doesn't compete in the World Championship cycle."
Gajewski also doffed his cap to his ward for his ability to fight. "I saw the position when he somehow managed to attack the pawn on f7," he said. "Things became tricky and Magnus activated the king and suddenly the king became exposed and he started pushing the pawns and the pawns became exposed. Yeah, Guki was able to keep coming back with new resources. Until Magnus calculated the line that he thought was winning and he missed this nice knight comeback... we could say it was lucky but we have to give Guki credit for his stubbornness and for his resourcefulness because... he was lost for so long yet he kept kicking and kicking and the lower the time went, the more chances he had to actually do something. I don't think his intention was to win it but he actually did it."
Indeed. At one point, the commentary team of Tania Sachdev, David Howell and Jovanka Houska were talking about the possibility of Gukesh being sixth and last going into the seventh round on Monday. Now, he's well and truly back into the tournament thanks to one of the comebacks of the year.
He was also intimate with what the pair spoke about post the teen's loss to the Norwegian in the first round. "After the first game, as I recall, we generally discussed the mistakes that were made. He was quite critical of his own game, but at the same time, the game was a high level game. We saw that the main problem was time management, and because of the time trouble, he managed to lose the position that he should not have lost.
"Things happen in time troubles. So we decided that we have to correct this time management, and already in the game with Hikaru (Nakamura), we could witness this improvement and progress. Even today, it was a little bit better. Even though the position was a little bit bad, he took some time but okay, in the difficult situation, you just have to think because if you make one more mistake, it would be immediately over."
What's next for the 19-year-old, who's now in third position on the table? "Well, hopefully, we can break another unbreakable... Arjun (Erigaisi)."
