Ex‑Carlsen Teammate Questions D Gukesh’s World Championship Title, Issues Stark Warning to India No. 1

It was a conquest that has often been undermined by various grandmasters-Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, among others-over the past year since D Gukesh became the youngest world champion in history. Independent of that now Norwegian GM Jon Ludvig Hammer has jumped on the bandwagon and has taken it upon himself to question Gukesh's historic achievement.

Hammer was Carlsen's second when he beat Viswanathan Anand to become world champion for the first time in 2013. Speaking to Take Take Take, Hammer felt that even Gukesh is the reigning champion, his challengers are on the same level as him.

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“It would be great for chess if Gukesh actually managed to keep his title now for prolonged period of time,” he said.

“We are now in a potential situation where the challengers and the champion are roughly the same strength which could mean that we see the title hopping from player to player and that I think is not a good thing.”

‘I liked it when we had the Karpov, the Kasparov, the Carlsen…’

Hammer then went on to lay some examples and felt that Gukesh will have to hold onto the title. “I liked it when we had the Karpov, the Kasparov, the Carlsen, where there was one guy who was just clearly better than others, because it lends the title so much legitimacy,” he added.

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Gukesh had a very poor run in Paris recently, as he finished dead last in the standings in the second leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam. He also went winless in Weissenhaus and was eighth there.

Carlsen won the Paris event after beating the World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura in the final and also took the Tour lead with 40 points. The World No. 1 also collected the prize money of 300,000 USD.

The next Freestyle Chess Grand Slam will take place in Las Vegas in July, between July 15 to 19. The Paris event also saw Fabiano Caruana finish third after defeating Vincent Keymer in the playoff. Arjun Erigaisi from India took the fifth position while Ian Nepomniachtchi stood in seventh.

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