‘D Gukesh not the best in the world’: Magnus Carlsen’s chief trainer claims ‘couple of others stronger than’ Indian GM

The Indian GM has been in poor form since defeating Ding Liren at the World C’ships last year. His 2025 has been erratic, with few positives, like his wins against Carlsen.

Speaking on a YouTube podcast, Magnus Carlsen’s chief trainer Peter Heine Nielsen, weighed in on the 19-year-old’s young chess career and pointed out that the Norwegian is better.

“He is the present. He is the world champion. He is an interesting player. I mean, I don’t think he is the best chess player in the world. I think that’s Magnus and probably there are couple of others who are also stronger than Gukesh. But that is not his fault that you are not the best player in the world, only one person can be that,” he said.

“He is very impressive and very interesting in many ways. Also very vulnerable and unimpressive in many ways. That goes to all sportspersons. He has a very courageous attitude and keeps on pushing it to the extremes. So I mean he is an interesting player and right now, there is no evidence that he is going to be the dominant player of his generation,” he added.

Gukesh is currently ranked 10th in the latest official FIDE standings. The closest he came to winning a title this year was in Wijk aan Zee, as he missed out on winning the Tata Masters. He lost to R Praggnanandhaa in the tie-breaker title-deciding round. He was also disappointed at the Chess World Cup, losing to Frederik Svane in the third round in Goa.