‘I Don’t Find Gukesh, Erigaisi Scary Yet’: Caruana Backs Carlsen, Claims ‘I Can Outplay Them’

‘I Don’t Find Gukesh, Erigaisi Scary Yet’: During the Norway Chess 2025 event, Magnus Carlsen made a remark that D Gukesh is not at the top of the list, even though he is the current world champion. Carlsen believes that the younger generation of GMs, such as Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi, still have much to learn. And now even the World number 4, and historically, the third best chess player ever, Fabiano Caruana, has joined on making similar comments, saying that the young stars of India will have a long as they work to achieve ranking dominance.

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Speaking on his C Squared Podcast, Caruana even said, that he did not find the Indian GMs 'scary', but also added that they were 'very strong'.

He said, “(These Indians players are) very strong. I think that we’ll be competing on more or less equal terms for a while. But I don’t find them scary yet. Whatsoever!”

“When I play for example Arjun or Gukesh, I do get this feeling — not just based on this Norway Chess tournament, but on many tournaments — that I can really outplay them very significantly and get a lot of winning chances. I don’t think they can outplay me in the same way.

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“Although they will get winning chances and then it’s about some other factors. Really this is my honest opinion. It’s not me trying to play them down or anything. I’m not doing that. They can definitely outperform me in various ways. But my feeling is that if it’s a long match, they’re great fighters, but they also give a lot of chances and (for them) it can be very frustrating to play against someone who doesn’t give many chances,” he added.

In the most current FIDE classical ratings, Magnus Carlsen is still number 1 with 2837, followed by Hikaru Nakamura (2804) and India's Arjun Erigaisi (2782), Fabiano Caruana (2777) and D Gukesh (2776).

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