D Gukesh (left) and Ding Liren (PTI Photo)
Nakamura, reflecting on Gukesh’s recent form expects the Indian Grandmaster to come out as the victor.
Chess Grandmaster, Hikaru Nakamura revealed his prediction for who would go on and win the World Chess Championship match between India’s D Gukesh and China’s Ding Liren slated to take place in November, later this year.
Gukesh has been in his best form having played a big role in India’s gold medal at the Chess Olympiad along with a strong showing in the recent Candidates tournament as well.
Nakamura, reflecting on Gukesh’s recent form does not see the trend changing drastically and expects the Indian Grandmaster to come out as the victor.
“I’ve said this many times already both here and on streams and everything else. I mean, unless Ding has some way to reverse, basically have short-term memory loss where everything that has happened over the last year goes out of his mind and he’s able to play great chess as well. I don’t see it being a close match. I think that all the signs point to a clear and dominant Gukesh victory,” Nakamura commented in an interview with ChessBase India.
Liren on the other hand, has not been at his best form like during his World Championship run in 2023. Since winning the title last year, he has taken a break from the sport due to personal reasons. He is still looking to get himself back to his best form to give Gukesh a worthy challenge possibly.
Looking at Gukesh’s recent run of form, Nakamura doubled down on his predictions and sees the Indian GM possibly grow even further considering he is still a developing player considering his age.
“First of all, he’s (Gukesh) been playing much better chess over the last year and a half. Secondly, he is much younger so he is improving and has not peaked, in terms of the levels his chess can get to,” he shared.
Nakamura also cited examples of Liren’s game against Le Quang Liem where the former has progressively gotten worse in terms of his performance which he believes will be a big factor in the world tournament.
“Third, look at Ding’s game against Le Quang Liem. Because in that game he had a marginal advantage, 0.3, 0,4s and endgame, those are the kind of games you would have to win like Magnus has done many times. Not only did he not grind it out, he then went from better to equal to a slightly very worse endgame and obviously in a World Championship match where everybody is super well-prepared, you’re probably going to get in these positions where you are slightly worse and he didn’t defend that either,” he added.
According to Nakamura, Gukesh does have a chance of losing against Liren but only if the latter is able to bring in a couple of draws and then bring out one of his best performances.
“To me, I just don’t see a world where Gukesh doesn’t win unless Ding can draw the first four or five games, and he gets a great game in the middle and he wins then, of course, he could win the match but of course its an 80-20 chance,” he concluded.
