Magnus Carlsen: ‘Gukesh vs Ding doesn’t look like a game between two World Championship contenders’ | Chess News

Five-time World Chess champion Magnus Carlsen has lashed out at the quality on display at the World Chess Championship between China’s Ding Liren and India’s D Gukesh, saying it doesn’t look like a game between two World Championship contenders.
Gukesh, who was ahead at the start of Game 12, played an opening that gave Ding the advantage. Ding’s win over Gukesh on Monday levelled the score at 6-6 with two games left to play, and tiebreaks if needed.
“This does not look like a game between two World Championship contenders. It just looks like maybe the second round or third round of an open tournament. It’s like it’s the stage where you play somebody who is like decent with openings but then you just win with class,” Carlsen said during a podcast the Take Take Take app.
The Norwegian said Gukesh has made it quite easy for Ding.
“Ding has not had to calculate a single line in this whole game. He’s been able to play the whole game just based on positional understanding which he’s very good at,” he said.
Carlsen said that Gukesh should’ve used his point advantage and put pressure on Ding, but that didn’t happen.“You have to make it difficult for your opponent. That’s when makes happen. If you play like the way that he (Gukesh) played today, it is very easy for the opponent to play near perfectly and win,” he said.
Going into the final two games, American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura and Carlsen said that Ding has emerged as the favourite.
“After a could of insane games, Ding is the favourite though psychologically it’s going to be hard for both players,” said Carlsen.
Nakamura agreed with Carlsen, adding, “I think there’s little pressure on Ding because we’ve talked about how his chances increase with the less time format. So there’s no doubt that he has the advantage,”