Magnus Carlsen, the five-time World Chess Champion, has hit out at India’s D Gukesh and China’s Ding Liren, for the lack of quality in the World Chess Championship. In a scathing assessment of the two, Carlsen said that the match between the two doesn’t look like a game between the two World Championship contenders.

Ding Liren won Game 12 against D Gukesh to level the score at 6-6. Two more Games are remaining in the contest between Gukesh and Liren and the match will go down to a tiebreak if needed.

However, the contest between Gukesh and Ding Liren has not impressed Magnus Carlsen one bit as he said that the match between them looks like a “second round or third round of an open tournament.” He also came down hard on Gukesh for making things quite easy for Ding.

“This does not look like a game between two World Championship contenders. It just looks like maybe the second round or third round of an open tournament. It’s like it’s the stage where you play somebody who is like decent with openings but then you just win with class,” Carlsen said during a podcast by the Take Take Take app.

“Ding has not had to calculate a single line in this whole game. He’s been able to play the whole game just based on positional understanding which he’s very good at,” he added.

In further assessment of Gukesh, Magnus Carlsen said that the Indian should have used his point advantage, but that just didn’t happen.

“You have to make it difficult for your opponent. That’s when mistakes happen. If you play like the way that he (Gukesh) played today, it is very easy for the opponent to play near perfectly and win,” he said.

Carlsen also stated that Ding Liren is now clearly the favourite. “After a could of insane games, Ding is the favourite though psychologically it’s going to be hard for both players,” said Carlsen.

American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura also agreed with Carlsen, saying, “I think there’s little pressure on Ding because we’ve talked about how his chances increase with the less time format. So there’s no doubt that he has the advantage.”

The scoreline between Gukesh and Liren is tied at 6-6 after Game 12 and both of them have an equal chance of walking away as the world champion.