Indian Grandmasters Predict Easy World Championship Match Victory For D Gukesh

Grandmasters Pravin Thipsay and Abhijit Kunte believe Indian GM D Gukesh, whose game bears a "resemblance" to legendary Russian Anatoly Karpov, will win the upcoming FIDE World Championship contest by the 12th round against his Chinese opponent Liren Ding in Singapore later this month. Ding will face a stern challenge from the 18-year-old Gukesh, who "doesn't make any mistakes at all" and has had a terrific run in 2024. Gukesh became the youngest champion in the history of the Candidates Tournament and also helped India win the gold medal in the 45th Chess Olympiad.

On the other hand, Ding hasn't won a game in the Classical format this year.

"Gukesh is a player who doesn't make any mistakes at all," Thipsay said during a symposium organised by the Sports Journalists Association of Mumbai here at the MIG Cricket Club.

"Sometimes the accuracy level is so great that he doesn't make a mistake unless he has got fatigue or something," he added.

"We will not see a 12th game," he said.

Kunte said, "I think Gukesh will win by round 12." Thipsay said even though the contest is between a 32-year-old Chinese player against an 18-year-old Indian, the maturity levels are very different.

"One is a young boy of 18 (against) somebody who is matured at the age of 32. We would presume him to be mature," he said.

"But if you look at the personality, the character, the strength of the person, I would say that Ding is like a child and Gukesh is like a grown up person." "Because after the fourth game we saw Ding started crying in the world championship match. He played the worst game probably. But he came out with a reaction that it was the worst game in his lifetime." "There is Gukesh, there is so much strength of the character — 'Okay, if I