D Gukesh is 'universally accepted as world champion': Indian Grandmaster hits back at critics

Two back-to-back poor outings in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 have put chess world champion D Gukesh under increased scrutiny over his recent World Championship win. However, amid the growing criticism, Indian Grandmaster and coach Srinath Narayanan has thrown his weight behind Gukesh.

Gukesh became the youngest world chess champion at 18 after beating Ding Liren of China in December last year. However, Gukesh’s victory was criticised by former world champions Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik for its perceived lack of quality.

Since becoming the world champion through a classical format competition, Gukesh has been mostly busy playing in the inaugural Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, which is played in the Fischer Random or Chess960 format.

Gukesh had failed to win a single match in the first leg at Weissenhaus and while he ended the drought in Paris, the Chennai player eventually finished joint-last.

Soon after, a video of Norwegian Grandmaster Jon Ludvig Hammer, a former main second for Carlsen, went viral in which he questioned Gukesh’s capability to hold onto his crown.

Gukesh ‘has nothing to prove’

Reacting to Hammer’s comments, Srinath, who was the Indian men’s team coach as they won gold for the first time in the 2024 Olympiad, said Gukesh is universally accepted as the world champion and he doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone.

“I don’t feel any particular attempt to downplay Gukesh as the world champion in general. He is universally accepted as the world champion and there is no questioning that,” Srinath told New Indian Express.

“Gukesh doesn’t particularly need to prove anything to anyone. I also haven’t noticed anyone mentioning that Gukesh won the World championship by luck. As for Gukesh’s results in freestyle, I think 1-2 tournaments is far too early to draw any major conclusions.”

While Hammer felt the challengers in the chess world are currently as good as the world champion and labelled it as a bad thing for the sport. Srinath said Gukesh has the ability to retain his crown in 2026 and even if that doesn’t happen, a competitive rivalry is not bad for any sport.

“Gukesh certainly has the ability to keep the crown. But it will definitely not be easy and his next challenger could very well be one of his compatriots from India or from his age group. Him and his trainers will have the best idea on what he needs to do to improve and defend his title,” Srinath shared with New Indian Express.

“I don’t think a competitive rivalry will have any negative effect on the sport. For example, in tennis for a period of time we had Federer (Roger), Nadal (Rafael) and Djokovic (Novak) all closely at the top and the rivalry was brilliant to watch,” he added.