Susan Polgar defends D Gukesh after Gary Kasparov world championship jibe

Chess legend Susan Polgar has jumped to the defence of D Gukesh after Garry Kasparov downplayed his World Championship win. Kasparov recently claimed that Gukesh can't be called the strongest player in the world yet as he isn't better than Magnus Carlsen at the moment.

The chess legend went on to say that Gukesh isn't even better than stars in his same age group, pointing to his defeat to R Praggnanandhaa in the first round of the Sinquefield Cup as an example. He further said that the Indian GM can't be compared to the likes of him, Carlsen, Anatoly Karpov or Bobby Fischer.

“Gukesh won fair and square but you can hardly call him the strongest player in the world. I don’t want to sound offensive but I think Magnus ended the era of classical world champions. Gukesh’s world championship title is very different. It’s still clear that Magnus is the strongest and Gukesh is yet to prove his superiority over others. Even players of his age category. The round 1 game against Praggnanandhaa at the Sinquefield Cup was very unimpressive. The rules are the rules and the games are the games,” said Kasparov.

Polgar defends Gukesh: He is a deserving world champion

Polgar took to X to defend the 19-year-old, saying that he is a deserving world champion and pointed out how he came out on top in the FIDE Candidates, a tournament that had big stars like Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura among others.

The chess legend claimed that it wasn't Gukesh's fault that Carlsen decided to walk away from his title. Polgar urged the chess community to not downplay Gukesh's win and have different standards for players.

“Gukesh is a deserving World Classical Champion, period! He went through the FIDE Candidates as an 18-year-old, the youngest in the tournament, and came out ahead of big stars like Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alireza Firouzja, and Pragg, etc. It was not his fault that Magnus Carlsen walked away from his title. If we, as a chess community, delegitimise his title because he did not beat Carlsen, then we need to do the same for World Champions after Bobby Fischer, since he also walked away from his title! We can not have different standards for players we like or dislike,” said Polgar on X.

Gukesh became the world champion in December last year when he defeated Ding Liren in the championship match. He became the youngest world champion in the history of chess with the win.