Dommaraju Gukesh is the youngest chess world champion of all time and the reigning title holder, but the 20-year-old still has to put up with criticism from many quarters. This goes too far for his coach Grzegorz Gajewski.
From Garry Kasparov to Magnus Carlsen to Ian Nepomniachtchi and Anatoli Karpov: the list of chess celebrities who have publicly criticized world champion Dommaraju Gukesh in recent months is quite long. According to the Indian’s coach, Grzegorz Gajewski, it is clearly too long.
“Kasparov, Carlsen, Karpov and the others, they are all great players. They all have egos, and Gukesh is a young man who has surpassed them all in a certain way,” said Gajewski in an interview with the “Hindustan Times” insinuating that the other chess stars had a certain envy of Gukesh, who was crowned the youngest chess world champion of all time in 2024.
He doesn’t want to claim that his protégé is better than those mentioned, Gajewski continued. “But he achieved something they never achieved. I understand that Garry is upset that his record was broken, but I think the game is just changing,” said the Gukesh coach, referring to Gasparov’s first world title, which made him the youngest world champion ever in 1985.
“You have to make peace with reality”
He also feels sorry for Nepomniachtchi, who played for the World Cup twice and lost both times. “He was so close to becoming world champion and worked for many years to get this far. And then these boys come along and just grab the title,” Gajewski said.
“Gukesh won his first Candidates Tournament straight away. Then he immediately became world champion, beating the thing that Nepo had failed at. Then Sindarov comes along and destroys the Candidates Tournament like it was nothing. That’s why I understand why they say that. But you have to make peace with reality,” says Gajewski, seeing a generational change in the chess scene that has already taken place.
